border on

phrasal verb

bordered on; bordering on; borders on

: to have a border on (something) : to lie on a boundary of (something)

The area my ancestors come from borders on the Atacama Desert.

: to be very like (something) : to come very close to being (something)

The play's dialog borders on the ridiculous.

an enthusiasm bordering on fanaticism

Examples of border on in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The need for robust protective structures borders on the dire — and most in the industry have known it since the 1980 disaster at the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida. —

Jonathan M. Pitts, Baltimore Sun, 3 July 2024 The numbers come as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will be along the southwest border on Wednesday, touring operations. —

Luke Barr, ABC News, 26 June 2024 Image is edited, unrelated to president's helicopter crash Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and seven other officials died in a helicopter crash in a mountainous area near the Azerbaijan border on May 19. —

Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY, 24 May 2024 This Kravitz is a little funkier, even bordering on the New Wave. —

Devon Ivie, Vulture, 8 May 2024 See all Example Sentences for border on

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'border on.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.