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verge

Noun
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The extreme edge, margin, or brink of something; metaphorically used in poetry to denote the boundary of dramatic change or crisis.

Detailed Definition
Here verge means the edge or rim of something, especially the horizon or the boundary where the sun sinks. Tennyson uses it in a visual, almost cosmic sense in the line about the sun going below the horizon.
Example
Example in poetry:
“That sinks with all we love below the verge” uses verge as an edge or threshold of loss; Wordsworth’s “verge of the horizon” imagery often makes a boundary seem emotional as well as physical; “At winter’s verge, one crocus opened” means at the brink or onset of a season; “He stood on the verge of speech” turns a literal edge into a psychological threshold
Additional Notes
“verge” in “below the verge;” is a somewhat literary use meaning edge or boundary, which may be less immediate than the everyday sense.; Found in the poem, Tears, Idle Tears by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Other Meanings of “verge”
Also Known As
edge brink threshold precipice Margin
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