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View synonyms for brink

brink

[ bringk ]

noun

  1. the edge or margin of a steep place or of land bordering water.
  2. any extreme edge; verge.
  3. a crucial or critical point, especially of a situation or state beyond which success or catastrophe occurs:

    We were on the brink of war.



brink

/ brɪŋk /

noun

  1. the edge, border, or verge of a steep place

    the brink of the precipice

  2. the highest point; top

    the sun fell below the brink of the hill

  3. the land at the edge of a body of water
  4. the verge of an event or state

    the brink of disaster

“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


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Other Words From

  • brinkless adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of brink1

1250–1300; Middle English brink < Old Norse ( Danish ) brink, cognate with MLG brink edge, hillside, Old Norse brekka slope, hill
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Word History and Origins

Origin of brink1

C13: from Middle Dutch brinc , of Germanic origin; compare Old Norse brekka slope, Middle Low German brink edge of a field
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Example Sentences

It will eat away at prosperity, dealing repeated economic blows to coastal, rural and Southern regions, which could in turn push entire communities to the brink of collapse.

After health systems were pushed to the brink, strict lockdowns brought the outbreak under control.

From Fortune

In San Leandro, California, Noodles Pho Me is one of very few Bay Area restaurants serving Lao-style pho, and was on the brink of closure earlier this month when its owners negotiated a deal with the landlord.

From Eater

A study published in the June 16 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, for example, estimates that 515 land-dwelling vertebrate species alone are on the brink of extinction.

Between advertisers continuing to cut spending, economies on the brink of recessions, the end of emergency employment benefits, and a pandemic that’s surging in some markets, agency holding group CEOs are still in the grip of a serious crisis.

From Digiday

She was sexually and verbally abused, leading her to the brink of suicide.

Emergent procedures provide their benefit right away and have the awesome potential to rescue a patient from the brink of death.

It is conceivable, if highly unlikely, that most Palestinians will try to pull back from the brink.

Meanwhile, their Missouri hometown appears to be on the brink of chaos.

But things were once a lot closer to the brink than most people knew.

I swung down from my horse on the brink of the creek, cinched the saddle afresh, and rolled a cigarette.

It was a hippopotamus which had been standing on the river-brink within six yards of the muzzle of his gun.

He sees no longer the brink of the abyss beside which the path of progress picks its painful way.

And presently we galloped across a mile or two of level grassland and pulled up on the very brink of Sage Creek canyon.

On the opposite side of the stream, set back about thirty paces from the brink, stood a granite boulder.

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