Brink

//bɹɪŋk// name, noun

name, noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge.

    "the brink of a river"

  2. 2
    the limit beyond which something happens or changes wordnet
  3. 3
    The edge or border. figuratively

    "the brink of success"

  4. 4
    the edge of a steep place wordnet
  5. 5
    a region marking a boundary wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.

Synonyms

All synonyms
vergebankboardborderbordurebrilliant

Example

More examples

"When we were on the brink of starvation, they saved our lives."

Etymology

From Middle English brinke, brenke, from Old Norse *brenka, brekka, from Proto-Germanic *brinkǭ, *brinkaz (“hill, edge (of land)”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰren- (“to project”). Cognate with Dutch brink (“grassland”), regional German Brink, Icelandic brekka (“slope”); also Tocharian B prenke (“island”), Irish braine (“prow”).

Related phrases

brink pinkon the brinkon the brink ofsea-brink

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.