be stiff-necked —(also: be hard-necked) be stubborn or haughty:
- She was stiff-necked, but he would make her see reason.
have a stiff neck—suffer from a condition in which the head cannot be moved without pain:
- By the time the train pulled into the station, he had a stiff neck and an aching back.
Note: The expression does not correlate in meaning with the phrase have the neck—(coll.) have the insolence; be presumptuous enough to do smth.:
- I asked her how she had the neck to come to the area to open a community center, while she was cutting community jobs.