verge🔊

A rod or staff of office, e.g. of a verger.

(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''.

An edge or border. (does this sense belong with Etymology 2?)

(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.

(figuratively) An extreme limit beyond which something specific will happen.

(obsolete) The phallus.

(zoology) The external male organ of certain mollusks, worms, etc.

An old measure of land: a virgate or yardland.

A circumference; a circle; a ring.

(architecture) The shaft of a column, or a small ornamental shaft.1845, ''Oxford Glossary of Architecture''

(roof architecture) (architecture) The eaves or edge of the roof that projects over the gable of a roof.

(horology) The spindle of a watch balance, especially one with pallets, as in the old vertical escapement.

To be or come very close; to border; to approach.

To bend or incline; to tend downward; to slope.