Definition of "on the brink" []

• Very nearly; imminent; close. (adjective)

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• "Though violence has dramatically dropped from just a few years ago, when Iraq teetered on the brink of civil war, attacks still almost daily."
• "We walk along a footpath through a patch of weeds to an izba, a log cabin with a straw roof pressing down on two squatty windows, perched on the brink of the forest."
• "If I simply returned to bed, he would wait until I was on the brink of sleep again, and then my name would echo throughout the house, Will Henreeee! until my will was broken."