Definition of "verge"

verge¹

/vɜːd͡ʒ/

noun
plural verges
1. A rod or staff of office, e.g. of a verger.
  1. (UK, historical) The stick or wand with which persons were formerly admitted tenants, by holding it in the hand and swearing fealty to the lord. Such tenants were called tenants by the verge.
2. An edge or border.
  Quotations
  Even though we go to the extreme verge of possibility to invent a supposition favourable to it, the theory […] implies an absurdity.
  1848, John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy
  But on the horizon's verge descried, Hangs, touched with light, one snowy sail.
  1852, Matthew Arnold, Stanzas from Carnac
  It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick. As one sat on the sward behind the elm, with the back turned on the rick and nothing in front but the tall elms and the oaks in the other hedge, it was quite easy to fancy it the verge of the prairie with the backwoods close by.
  1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […]
  1. (UK, Australia, New Zealand) The grassy area between the footpath and the street; a tree lawn; a grassed strip running alongside either side of an outback road.
    Quotations
    The shoulders are graded and the verges cleared well back to lessen the chances of hitting stray stock.
    2000, Bob Foster, Birdum or Bust!, Henley Beach, SA: Seaview Press, page 129
  2. (figuratively) An extreme limit beyond which something specific will happen.
    Quotations
    The tremendous tragedy in which he had been involved – it was evident he was a fugitive from Weybridge - had driven him to the very verge of his reason.
    1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 113
3. (obsolete) The phallus.
  1. (zoology) The external male organ of certain mollusks, worms, etc.
4. An old measure of land: a virgate or yardland.
5. A circumference; a circle; a ring.
  Quotations
  The inclusive verge Of golden metal that must round my brow.
  c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene i]
6. (architecture) The shaft of a column, or a small ornamental shaft.
7. (architecture) The eaves or edge of the roof that projects over the gable of a roof.
  Quotations
  The smaller ribs of tiles that run down to the eaves, along the ridges in a hip-roof, or border the verge in a gable-roof , often terminate in some ornamental tile in high-relief .
  1885, Edward S. Morse, Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings
8. (horology) The spindle of a watch balance, especially one with pallets, as in the old vertical escapement.

verge²

/vɜːd͡ʒ/

verb
third-person singular simple present verges, present participle verging, simple past and past participle verged
1. (intransitive) To be or come very close; to border; to approach.
2. To bend or incline; to tend downward; to slope.