BRINK

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does brink mean? 

• BRINK (noun)
  The noun BRINK has 3 senses:

1. a region marking a boundary

2. the edge of a steep place

3. the limit beyond which something happens or changes

  Familiarity information: BRINK used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BRINK (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A region marking a boundary

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Synonyms:

brink; threshold; verge

Hypernyms ("brink" is a kind of...):

bound; boundary; edge (a line determining the limits of an area)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The edge of a steep place

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Hypernyms ("brink" is a kind of...):

border; edge (the boundary of a surface)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The limit beyond which something happens or changes

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

brink; verge

Context example:

on the brink of bankruptcy

Hypernyms ("brink" is a kind of...):

bound; boundary; limit (the greatest possible degree of something)

 Context examples 

Building on earlier work showing that cells can recover from the brink of death, the new study demonstrates that anastasis is an active process composed of two distinguishable stages.

(Cells Back from Brink of Death, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The boy placed himself by the brink of the well, and often saw a golden fish or a golden snake show itself therein, and took care that nothing fell in.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

At the brink of it was the furze-bush upon which the coat had been hung.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was not until Tranter, giving back before the other's fiery rush, was upon the very brink, that a general cry warned him of his danger.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Sometimes, on the very brink of certainty, I failed; yet still I clung to the hope which the next day or the next hour might realise.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

We tottered together upon the brink of the fall.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I did not know before, that I had two daughters on the brink of matrimony.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

There was no pausing on the brink; no looking down, or looking back; I was gone, headlong, before I had sense to say a word to her.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The personage on the well-brink now seemed to accost her; to make some request:—She hasted, let down her pitcher on her hand, and gave him to drink.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The blurry image taken in Western Australia's Great Sandy Desert, suggests the night parrot is fighting back from the brink of extinction.

(Aboriginal Rangers Find Evidence of One of Australia’s Rarest Birds, VOA)