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”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɹɪŋk/, [ˈbɹʷɪŋk]

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (pre-/ŋ/-tensing)
  • (Upper Midwestern US, Northwestern US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹiŋk/, [ˈbɹʷiŋk] ~ [ˈbɹʷɪ̝ŋk]
• (Appalachia, African-American Vernacular, thank-think merger)
  • (without æ-raising) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹæŋk/, [ˈbɹʷæŋk]
  • (æ-raising) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹeɪ̯ŋk/, [ˈbɹʷeɪ̯ŋk]; /ˈbɹɛ̃ŋk/, [ˈbɹʷɛ̃ŋk]
• Rhymes: -ɪŋk
• Hyphenation: brink

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

   • 1622, Edward Winslow, William Bradford, Mourt's Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth‎^[1]:

     And the appearance of it much comforted us, especially seeing so goodly a land, and wooded to the brink of the sea.

2. (figurative) The edge or border.

   the brink of success

   • 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^[2], →ISSN:

     As South Korea heads to the polls, can Lee Jae-myung bring the country back from the brink? [title]

• “brink”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “brink”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

From Old Danish brink. Compare Old Norse brekka.

brink c (singular definite brinken, plural indefinite brinker)

1. brink, edge, bank (especially down to a stream, lake, etc.)

• åbrink

• skrænt

• “brink” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “brink” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

From Middle Dutch brinc, from Old Dutch *brinc, from Proto-Germanic *brinkaz.

Cognate with English brink.

• IPA^(key): /brɪŋk/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: brink
• Rhymes: -ɪŋk

brink m (plural brinken, diminutive brinkje n)

1. village green, functioning as a central square
2. edge or margin of a field
3. edge or margin of a hill
4. grassy edge or margin of a strip of land
5. grassland

• brinkdorp

brink

1. alternative form of brinke