the.com/brink
the exact spot where caution ends and the good story begins
means The edge or verge of something — literally a steep bank or border, figuratively the point just before a critical change happens.
from From Middle English 'brink,' related to Middle Low German 'brink' (edge, shore of a field) and Danish 'brink' (steep slope). The word seems to have arrived from a Scandinavian or Low German source, carrying the sense of a sharp grassy edge — the rim of a hill or the bank of a river — before it drifted into the metaphorical 'edge of danger' we lean over today.
- origin
- From Middle Low German meaning edge of a hill
- diplomacy
- Brinkmanship pushed Cold War crises to the cliff deliberately
- physics
- Water clings to a brink via surface tension
- usage
- Always 'on the brink,' never comfortably back from it
brink of extinction — california condor population dropped to 27 birds in 1987 before captive breeding saved it
brink of bankruptcy — general motors filed for chapter 11 in june 2009 during financial crisis