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

With Penn State on the brink of becoming ineligible for a postseason bowl game, the search for a new head coach is very much underway. —Cole Sullivan, MSNBC Newsweek, 15 Nov. 2025

South Africa may be on the brink of securing its first credit rating upgrade in almost two decades — a development that would cut the cost of borrowing and cement investor confidence around policy changes in Africa’s biggest economy. —semafor.com, 14 Nov. 2025

The controversial 1974 cult classic Death Wish was a milestone film in the vigilante justice genre that lives on everywhere today, from Batman films to John Wick, feeding audiences’ insatiable appetite for the everyman pushed to the brink who finally takes matters into his own hands. —Paul Fitzgerald, Rolling Stone, 13 Nov. 2025

The movie, Las Locuras in Spanish, follows Renata, who is under house arrest and on the brink of a manic episode. —Stewart Clarke, Deadline, 12 Nov. 2025