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

Rising monthly health insurance premiums, along with copayments, high deductibles, and other out-of-pocket medical costs, can often push families like these to the brink. —Renuka Rayasam, Miami Herald, 2 Feb. 2026

The approval marks yet another step towards concluding a lengthy search to find buyers for Prospect’s Connecticut hospitals — a process that often seemed on the brink of failure. —Katy Golvala, Hartford Courant, 31 Jan. 2026

The Chicago Reader, the groundbreaking alternative weekly which has been on the brink of dissolution for years, will become a monthly in February under new owners, who are looking to reinvent the storied newspaper while turning red ink to black. —Robert Channick, Chicago Tribune, 30 Jan. 2026

The latest remarks to People come nearly a year after speculation swirled that Ye and Censori were on the brink of divorce following yet another one of the rapper’s antisemitic rants on social media. —Jami Ganz, New York Daily News, 30 Jan. 2026