neck of the woods
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
a nearby area or region
Literally: a narrow part of a wooded area
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
In the meanwhile, do you think you could persuade a few more salmon to get into the rivers around your neck of the woods by the time next season opens?
The owl will not forget the ordeal and may in future avoid that particular neck of the woods.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “neck of the woods” mean?
a nearby area or region Literally: a narrow part of a wooded area
Is “neck of the woods” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.