thickneck

English

Etymology

thick +‎ neck

Noun

thickneck (plural thicknecks)

1. A thuggish enforcer; a goon.
   • 1996, Michael Drinkard, Disobedience, page 64:

     At 58.9K, he'd be handing over practically nine thousand dollars a year to California and to the county for the privilege of being shaken down by these thicknecks. And the shittiest thing of it was, he never had a problem with paying taxes.

   • 2002, Peter Konecny, Gogol's Ghost, page 131:

     Shady looking thicknecks accompany the businessmen and other types. These gentlemen, who require no assistance whatsoever to disembowel any potential troublemaker, are the right-hand men of the modern-day Russian bosses.

2. An onion that fails to develop a bulb.