Noun

1. An article of jewelry/jewellery that is worn around the neck, most often made of a string of precious metal, pearls, gems, beads or shells, and sometimes having a pendant attached.
2. Anything resembling a necklace in shape.

   a necklace of coral islands

3. (South African) A method of informal execution in which a rubber tyre is filled with petrol, placed around the victim's neck, and set on fire.

Verb

1. (South African) To informally execute by setting on fire a petrol-filled rubber tyre which has been put around the bound victim's neck.
   • May 29 2003: The Star:

     Frustrated residents tied the hands of two suspected criminals, put tyres around their necks and then set them alight. In a manifestation of growing disillusionment with the criminal justice system, residents of Bramfischerville, west of Johannesburg, on Tuesday abducted and necklaced two suspected burglars.

   • 2002 Buthelezi: A Biography by Ben Temkin

     Inkatha members have been hacked to death and necklaced, and their houses have been destroyed

   • 2000 Beyond Our Wildest Dreams: The United Democratic Front and the Transformation of South Africa by Ineke Van Kessel

     The first instance of necklacing occurred in March 1985 in the Eastern Cape township of KwaNobuhle.

Adjective

1. (South African) Describing a method of murder.
   • 4 August, 2004 Headline Pretoria News: Necklacing: 7 held.

     Seven people have been arrested in connection with Saturday's "necklace" murder of three men in the Tjokville informal settlement at Jeffrey's Bay.

   • 2000 Beyond Our Wildest Dreams: The United Democratic Front and the Transformation of South Africa by Ineke Van Kessel

     Several of the alledged witches in Apel and GaNkaone were also subjected to a necklace execution

   • 2004 A Human Being Died That Night: A South African Woman Confronts the Legacy of Apartheid by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela

     In the fluidly unfolding events of a necklace murder, was there time and space to stop the killing?