Word.ws English Dictionary

brink

/ˈbɹɪŋk/

brink noun: the edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge.

Noun

brink (plural brinks)

  1. The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge.
    • the brink of a river
    • And the appearance of it much comforted us, especially seeing so goodly a land, and wooded to the brink of the sea.1622, Edward Winslow, William Bradford, Mourt's Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth
  2. (figuratively) The edge or border.
    • the brink of success
    • As South Korea heads to the polls, can Lee Jae-myung bring the country back from the brink? [title]2025 June 1, Raphael Rashid, “As South Korea heads to the polls, can Lee Jae-myung bring the country back from the brink?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

Proper noun capitalized: Brink

Brink (plural Brinks)

  1. A surname.

brink meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam

brink in Hindi

brink
तीर tīr

brink in Tamil

brink, edge, tip
தருவாய் taruvāy

brink in Urdu

brink
تیر tīr

brink in Malayalam

അരിക്, കര
More languagesFewer languages
brink in Kannada
ಕರೆ, ಬದಿ

Examples of brink in a sentence

  • He was a strapping youth poised on the brink of manhood.
  • She was a vigorous youth poised on the brink of womanhood.
  • The old building seemed to be on the brink of collapse.

All 36 example sentences with brink

Forms of brink

Noun
pluralbrinks
Proper noun
pluralBrinks

Plural of brink: brinks

Origin of brink

From Middle English brinke, brenke, from Old Norse *brenka, brekka, from Proto-Germanic *brinkǭ, *brinkaz (“hill, edge (of land)”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰren- (“to project”). Cognate with Dutch brink (“grassland”), regional German Brink, Icelandic brekka (“slope”); also Tocharian B prenke (“island”), Irish braine (“prow”).

Words formed from brink

Words that rhyme with brink

35 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about brink

What does brink mean?
Brink means the edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge.
What is brink in Hindi?
Brink in Hindi is तीर (tīr). See Brink meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is brink?
Brink can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce brink?
Brink is pronounced /ˈbɹɪŋk/.
What is the plural of brink?
The plural of brink is brinks.

Words near brink in the dictionary

  1. brinjarries
  2. brinjarry
  3. brinjaul
  4. brinjauls
  5. Brinje
  6. brink
  7. brink pink
  8. Brink's truck
  9. Brinkburn
  10. Brinken
  11. Brinker

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brink (page history and authors); Brink (page history and authors); तीर (Hindi) (page history and authors); தருவாய் (Tamil) (page history and authors); تیر (Urdu) (page history and authors); brink (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); brink (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-brink.wav.

Cite this entry: “brink.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/brink. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.