Word.ws English Dictionary

on the edge

on the edge prepositional phrase: in a precarious position, with one's resources nearly exhausted.

Prepositional phrase

  1. In a precarious position, with one's resources nearly exhausted.
    • Our job as social workers is to help families on the edge.
  2. In a state of excitement due to taking risks.
    • living on the edge
    • You know, flying a chopper, a helicopter, it's just natural for me. Maybe... just a little exciting? Yes, man. It's great. There's nothing like it. It's on the edge.1990, “Payback”, in Tour of Duty
  3. (with-of) With figurative or temporal proximity to (an event, state of mind, etc.).
    • The stock market was on the edge of collapse.
    • on the edge of lunacy

Synonyms of on the edge

Words formed from on the edge

Questions about on the edge

What does on the edge mean?
On the edge means in a precarious position, with one's resources nearly exhausted.
What part of speech is on the edge?
On the edge is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the edge in the dictionary

  1. on the down-low
  2. on the downlow
  3. on the drum
  4. on the dry
  5. on the earie
  6. on the edge
  7. on the edge of
  8. on the edge of one's seat
  9. on the face of
  10. on the face of it
  11. on the face of the earth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the edge (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.

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