- verge
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I. noun
Etymology: Middle English, rod, measuring rod, margin, from Anglo-French, rod, area of jurisdiction, from Latin virga twig, rod, line
Date: 15th century
1.
a.
(1) a rod or staff carried as an emblem of authority or symbol of office
(2) obsolete a stick or wand held by a person being admitted to tenancy while he swears fealty
b. the spindle of a watch balance; especially a spindle with pallets in an old vertical escapement
c. the male copulatory organ of any of various invertebrates
2.
a. something that borders, limits, or bounds: as
(1) an outer margin of an object or structural part
(2) the edge of roof covering (as tiling) projecting over the gable of a roof
(3) British a paved or planted strip of land at the edge of a road ; shoulder
b. brink, threshold <a country on the verge of destruction — Archibald MacLeish> II. intransitive verb (verged; verging) Date: 1787 1. to be contiguous 2. to be on the verge or border <the line where sentiment verges on mawkishness — Thomas Hardy> III. intransitive verb (verged; verging) Etymology: Latin vergere to bend, incline — more at wrench Date: 1610 1. a. of the sun to move or tend toward the horizon ; sink b. to move or extend in some direction or toward some condition <verging to a hasty decline — Edward Gibbon> 2. to be in transition or change
New Collegiate Dictionary. 2001.
