neck-kerchief

neck-kerchief (plural neck-kerchiefs or neck-kerchieves)

1. Alternative form of neckerchief.
   • 1654, R[ichard] Younge, “[The Benefit of Affliction, and how to husband it so, that (with blessing from above) the weakest Christian may be able to support himself in his most miserable Exigents.] How it makes them conformable unto Christ their head.”, in A Sovereign Antidote Against All Grief. […], fourth impression, London: […] R. & W. Leybourn, for James Crump, […], page 43:

     Never did Neck-kerchief become me ſo well as this Chain (ſaid Alice Drivers) when they faſtened her to the Stake to be burnt.

   • 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, “I am Sent Away from Home”, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 54:

     He was dressed in a suit of black clothes which were rather rusty and dry too, and rather short in the sleeves and legs; and he had a white neck-kerchief on that was not over-clean. I did not, and do not, suppose that this neck-kerchief was all the linen he wore, but it was all he showed or gave any hint of.

   • 1978, Joanna Bird, Hugh Chapman, John Clark, editors, Collectanea Londiniensia: Studies in London Archaeology and History Presented to Ralph Merrifield, London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, page 271:

     The women wear neck-kerchieves spreading over their shoulders, and ruffs, but their aprons show that they are shop-keepers rather than gentry; their high-crowned felt hats are of the mid-Elizabethan fashion.

   • 2004 October 6, Melanie White, “Pious as a church mouse: Creatures great and small rouse merry commotion at annual pet blessing”, in Jackson Hole News&Guide, Jackson, Wyo., page 3B, columns 2–3:

     Dogs sporting Sunday best of bright pink shorts, T-shirts, neck-kerchiefs and even tutus crowded into an adjoining room after the service to lap up their owners’ leftover donuts.