brink
Other forms: brinks
The brink of something is the very edge of it. If you want to give your mom a good scare, stand on the brink of a steep cliff and slowly lean forward.
The noun brink describes the edge of a steep drop-off or slope, or the edge of a boundary marking where something begins, like the brink of a pond. Brink also describes the figurative edge or start of something. Nations on the brink of war are very close to mobilizing troops; if you are on the brink of losing your temper, you might try walking away or slowly counting to ten.
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the edge of a steep place
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the limit beyond which something happens or changes
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a region marking a boundary
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Vocabulary lists containing brink
After meeting the Tucks, a family that is able to live forever after drinking from a magical spring, Winnie Foster questions whether immortality is a blessing or a curse.
This 19th-century transcendentalist essay argues that spending time in nature helps people resist conformity and become their truest selves. Read the full text here. Here are links to our lists for other works by Ralph Waldo Emerson: Self-Reliance, The Young American