verge Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a region marking a boundary
    threshold; brink.
  2. noun the limit beyond which something happens or changes
    brink.
    • on the verge of tears
    • on the brink of bankruptcy
  3. noun a ceremonial or emblematic staff
    wand; scepter; sceptre.
  4. noun a grass border along a road
  5. verb border on; come close to
    • His behavior verges on the criminal

WordNet

Verge noun
Etymology
F. verge, L. virga; perhaps akin to E. wisp.
Definitions
  1. A rod or staff, carried as an emblem of authority; as, the verge, carried before a dean.
  2. The stick or wand with which persons were formerly admitted tenants, they holding it in the hand, and swearing fealty to the lord. Such tenants were called tenants by the verge. Eng.
  3. (Eng. Law) The compass of the court of Marshalsea and the Palace court, within which the lord steward and the marshal of the king's household had special jurisdiction; -- so called from the verge, or staff, which the marshal bore.
  4. A virgate; a yardland. Obs.
  5. A border, limit, or boundary of a space; an edge, margin, or brink of something definite in extent.
    Even though we go to the extreme verge of possibility to invent a supposition favorable to it, the theory . . . implies an absurdity. J. S. Mill.
    But on the horizon's verge descried, Hangs, touched with light, one snowy sail. M. Arnold.
  6. A circumference; a circle; a ring.
    The inclusive verge Of golden metal that must round my brow. Shak.
  7. (Arch.) (a) The shaft of a column, or a small ornamental shaft. Oxf. Gloss. (b) The edge of the tiling projecting over the gable of a roof. Encyc. Brit.
  8. (Horol.) The spindle of a watch balance, especially one with pallets, as in the old vertical escapement. See under Escapement.
  9. (Hort.) (a) The edge or outside of a bed or border. (b) A slip of grass adjoining gravel walks, and dividing them from the borders in a parterre.
  10. The penis.
  11. (Zoöl.) The external male organ of certain mollusks, worms, etc. See Illustration in Appendix. Syn. -- Border; edge; rim; brim; margin; brink.
Verge intransitive verb
Etymology
L. vergere to bend, turn, incline; cf. Skr. vj to turn.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Verged ; present participle & verbal noun Verging
Definitions
  1. To border upon; to tend; to incline; to come near; to approach.
  2. To tend downward; to bend; to slope; as, a hill verges to the north.
    Our soul, from original instinct, vergeth towards him as its center. Barrow.
    I find myself verging to that period of life which is to be labor and sorrow. Swift.

Webster 1913