brink
[ bringk ]
/ brɪŋk /
noun
the edge or margin of a steep place or of land bordering water.
any extreme edge; verge.
a crucial or critical point, especially of a situation or state beyond which success or catastrophe occurs: We were on the brink of war.
RELATED CONTENT
RELATED WORDS
threshold, fringe, periphery, verge, perimeter, frontier, border, point, skirt, rim, limit, brim, lip, boundary, margin
Nearby words
- bring-and-buy sale,
- bringdown,
- bringer,
- bringing-up,
- brinjal,
- brinkley,
- brinkman,
- brinkmanship,
- brinksmanship,
- brinnin
Origin of brink
1250–1300; Middle English brink < Old Norse (Danish) brink, cognate with MLG brink edge, hillside, Old Norse brekka slope, hill
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for brink
brink
/ (brɪŋk) /
noun
the edge, border, or verge of a steep placethe brink of the precipice
the highest point; topthe sun fell below the brink of the hill
the land at the edge of a body of water
the verge of an event or statethe brink of disaster
Word Origin for brink
C13: from Middle Dutch brinc, of Germanic origin; compare Old Norse brekka slope, Middle Low German brink edge of a field
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
brink
early 13c., from Middle Low German brink "edge," or Danish brink "steepness, shore, bank, grassy edge," from Proto-Germanic *brenkon, probably from PIE *bhreng-, variant of root *bhren- "project, edge" (cf. Lithuanian brinkti "to swell").
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper