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Showing results for ragged edge. Search instead for ragged+edge.
Synonyms

ragged edge

American  

noun

  1. the brink, as of a cliff.

  2. any extreme edge; verge.

idioms

  1. on the ragged edge, in a dangerous or precarious position; on the verge or brink of.

    on the ragged edge of despair.

Etymology

Origin of ragged edge

An Americanism dating back to 1875–80

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The last few years I've been off balance, right on the ragged edge of my technique where that if I have to push a little bit more, I lose it.

From BBC • Aug. 28, 2024

I remember thinking, I’m like on the ragged edge of sanity.”

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 11, 2023

In her gouache drawings every watery bloom and ragged edge helps to strengthen the composition, build the space.

From New York Times • Nov. 12, 2021

Yet she was born in Oklahoma, where her family, as she put it, was “on the ragged edge of the middle class … kind of hanging on at the edges by our fingernails.”

From Seattle Times • Jun. 14, 2019

She couldn’t keep the ragged edge from her voice when she added, “Don’t you think so too?”

From "Orphan Island" by Laurel Snyder

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.