a. and sb. [f. BREAK v. 7 b + NECK.]
A. adj. Likely to break the neck; endangering the neck or life; headlong (of speed, etc.); precipitous (of roads, rocks).
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 16. My … breakneck fall.
1618. Bolton, Florus, III. i. 164. Break-neck clifs, and high over-hanging places.
1809. Edin. Rev., XV. 62. Ignorance of the country and confidence in Ponz have made him conduct his traveller by a break-neck road from Madrid to San Ildefonso.
1882. B. Ramsay, Recoll. Mil. Serv., I. v. 131. To ride a breakneck pace round Jacko Hill.
† B. sb. Obs. ‘A fall in which the neck is broken; a steep place endangering the neck’ (J.); fig. destruction, ruin.
1563. Homilies, II. Idolatry (1859), 251. Such a stumbling-block for his own feet and others that may perhaps bring at last to breakneck.
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 289/2. The question is not of any light fall, but it is a deadly breaknecke.
1624. F. White, Reply Fisher, 527. They may … fall with a breake-necke, downe to Hell.
1649. W. Dell, Way of Peace, 115. The very break-neck of the Churches peace and unity.
1653. Gataker, Vind. Annot. Jer., 137. To work the downfall and break-neck of mens souls.
† b. One who risks breaking his neck. Obs.
1598. Florio, Scauezzacóllo, a breakeneck, a halter-sack, a wag.
