- border
- border n Border, margin, verge, edge, rim, brim, brink mean the line or relatively narrow space which marks the limit or outermost bound of something. A border is the part of a surface which is just within its boundary line{
the border of a rug
}or it may be the boundary line itself{I had at last reached the border of the forest— Hudson
}Margin denotes a border of definite width usually distinguished in some way from the remaining surface; it also applies to the space immediately contiguous to a body of water{the margin of a page
}{the margin of a lake or river
}{they wandered onward till they reached the nether margin of the heath, where it became marshy, and merged in moorland— Hardy
}Verge applies to the line or to a very narrow space which sharply marks the limit or termination of a thing (as a surface or an expanse){the sky was clear from verge to verge— Hardy
}Verge may also be applied to the extreme limit of something with an implication that it is being approached either from within or from without{it is not enough that a statute goes to the verge of constitutional power. We must be able to see clearly that it goes beyond that power— Justice Holmes
}{he is on the verge of ruin
}An edge is a sharply defined terminating line made by the converging of two surfaces (as of a blade, a dish, a plank, or a box). Edge often implies sharpness (as opposed to bluntness) and therefore power to cut{a tool with a fine edge may do mischief— Godwin
}{put an edge on this knife
}It is this implication that comes out strongest in extended use where it often suggests asperity, trenchancy, or keenness{there was an edge in his tone
}{his calming words took the edge off their fear
}Rim usually applies to the verge or edge of something circular or curving{the rim of the moon
}{the rim of a bucket
}{the rim of a wheel
}Brim applies to the inner side of the rim of a hollow vessel{fill the pot to the brim
}or to the topmost line of the basin of a river, lake, or other body of water{the river has risen to the brim
}Brink denotes the edge of something steep (as a precipice); thus, one would speak of the river's brink when stressing the abruptness of the bank or shore but of the river's brim when the notion of the close approach of the water to the basin's rim is uppermost in mind. Brink may also be used of immaterial things with the implication of a possibility or risk of abrupt transition (as fronrone state to another){a policy that brought the nation to the brink of war
}{on the brink of a horrible danger— Wilde
}Analogous words: *limit, bound, confine, endContrasted words: inside, interior (see corresponding adjectives at INNER)
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
