the brink

noun

: the edge at the top of a steep cliff

—usually used figuratively to refer to a point that is very close to the occurrence of something very bad or (less commonly) very good

He nearly lost everything because of his drug addiction, but his friends helped to pull him back from the brink.

The two nations are on the brink of war.

Doctors may be on the brink of finding a cure for this disease.

an animal that has been brought/pulled back from the brink of extinction

Examples of the brink in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The crisis follows weeks of warnings that SNAP, which costs about $9 billion a month to run, was on the brink of running out of funds due to the shutdown. —Eva Roytburg, Fortune, 8 Nov. 2025

Russian forces appear to be on the brink of finally seizing the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, a symbolic victory that President Vladimir Putin has been pursuing for 21 months at an increasingly heavy cost. —Ivana Kottasová, CNN Money, 8 Nov. 2025

In the midst of the conflict with Russia and with Ukraine at the brink of civil war in 2014, then-President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia. —Olena Loginova, Miami Herald, 7 Nov. 2025

Contenders are rolling into theaters fast and furious from Sentimental Value with Stellan Skarsgård and Renate Reinsve, to Russell Crowe as Herman Göring (Nuremberg), Sydney Sweeney as boxing legend Christy Martin (Christy) and Jennifer Lawrence on the brink of madness in Die My Love. —Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 7 Nov. 2025