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 unknowns will not stop those who see the assassination as an overt act of left-versus-right violence from feeling like the country is on the brink of a civil war. —Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic, 12 Sep. 2025

Now on the brink of adulthood, Belly finds herself at a crossroads and must decide which brother has her heart. —Billie Melissa, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Sep. 2025

Set in a small Irish village on the brink of change, the book is a meditation on memory, first love and the quiet magic of ordinary moments. —American Booksellers Association, USA Today, 11 Sep. 2025

Some of these mysteries may be on the brink of being solved, while others continue to defy even our most sophisticated theories. —Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 11 Sep. 2025