(n.) The nape of the neck; the loose outside skin, as of the back of the neck.
Example Sentences:
(1) A catatonia-like state was elicited in male mice with different experience of social interactions, by pinch of scruff of the neck in a suspended state.
(2) Cardiff's Malky Mackay said: "Mutch came on and made a big difference, taking the game by the scruff of the neck.
(3) "I want Dortmund to go through but he is trying to take the game by the scruff of the neck and I would love to see him have a go.
(4) Although Sunderland were desperately poor, credit has to go Villa for the way they took the game by the scruff of the neck.
(5) Though Diaby was the injured party, Phil Dowd had little option but to take a dim view of the Arsenal player grabbing hold of his opponent by the scruff of the neck afterwards and flinging him to the floor.
(6) Ireland grabbed the tie by the scruff of the neck from the first whistle.
(7) So copiously did blood flow from his lower lip at one performance that his adversary, played by Hugh McDermott, held him up by the scruff of the neck for the audience to gape at the gore dripping over the footlights.
(8) Meanwhile his mother was shocked when his brother William joined the army: in peacetime only "scruffs and villains" did so.
(9) The national team still lacks someone that can take a game by the scruff of the neck when needed.
(10) 85 mins: Gattuso, Milan's best player of the night by far, attempts to grab the match by the scruff of the neck.
(11) The duration and stereotypy (in terms of duration) of three actions, stand-overs (SO), generalbites (GB), And scruff-bites (SB), were measured during social play and agonistic interactions in infant eastern coyotes (Canis latrans).
(12) "He doesn't necessarily wait for each party to tell their story but will try to grab the case by the scruff of the neck in the nicest way."
(13) 37 Real Madrid 3-0 Wolfsburg , Champions League, 12 April 2016 Two goals down after the first leg in Germany and facing elimination from the Champions League, Ronaldo grabbed the second leg by the scruff of the neck and completed his hat-trick with a free-kick 13 minutes from time to seal his 16th goal of Madrid’s European campaign in 2015-16.
(14) The Liverpool skipper has flicked a switch and grabbed this match by the scruff of the neck.
(15) The whole group were such an oddball collection of long hairs, scruffs and smoothies that I just had to join."
(16) So they picked me up by the scruff of the neck and said: 'OK, run this for a while until we figure out what we're doing.'
(17) At every stage of his career, Moretti has taken English studies by the scruff of the neck, refusing to observe the distinctions between high and low literature, between academic and common-reader approaches.
(18) Foul up and you feel he'll grab you by the scruff of your neck.
(19) Lover” was the start of a glorious decade, 10 years in which Prince Rogers Nelson took American pop by the scruff of the neck and shaped it to his own mercurial ends.
(20) Preliminary experiments indicated that both the spontaneous and evoked activities of VMM convergent neurons were inhibited during stressful manipulations such as scruff lifting or defense reactions.
Shruff
Definition:
(n.) Rubbish. Specifically: (a) Dross or refuse of metals. [Obs.] (b) Light, dry wood, or stuff used for fuel.