Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Verge

Verge (vẽrj), n. [F. verge, L. virga; perhaps akin to E. wisp.] 1. A rod or staff, carried as an emblem of authority; as, the verge, carried before a dean.

2. The stick or wand with which persons were formerly admitted tenants, they holding it in the hand, and swearing fealty to the lord. Such tenants were called tenants by the verge. [Eng.]

3. (Eng. Law) The compass of the court of Marshalsea and the Palace court, within which the lord steward and the marshal of the king's household had special jurisdiction; — so called from the verge, or staff, which the marshal bore.

4. A virgate; a yardland. [Obs.]

5. A border, limit, or boundary of a space; an edge, margin, or brink of something definite in extent.

Even though we go to the extreme verge of possibility to invent a supposition favorable to it, the theory . . . implies an absurdity. J. S. Mill.

But on the horizon's verge descried, Hangs, touched with light, one snowy sail. M. Arnold.

6. A circumference; a circle; a ring.

The inclusive verge Of golden metal that must round my brow. Shak.

7. (Arch.) (a) The shaft of a column, or a small ornamental shaft. Oxf. Gloss. (b) The edge of the tiling projecting over the gable of a roof. Encyc. Brit.

8. (Horol.) The spindle of a watch balance, especially one with pallets, as in the old vertical escapement. See under Escapement.

9. (Hort.) (a) The edge or outside of a bed or border. (b) A slip of grass adjoining gravel walks, and dividing them from the borders in a parterre.

10. The penis.

11. (Zoöl.) The external male organ of certain mollusks, worms, etc. See Illustration in Appendix.

Syn. — Border; edge; rim; brim; margin; brink.

Verge (vẽrj), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Verged; p. pr. & vb. n. Verging.] [L. vergere to bend, turn, incline; cf. Skr. vṛj to turn.] 1. To border upon; to tend; to incline; to come near; to approach.

2. To tend downward; to bend; to slope; as, a hill verges to the north.

Our soul, from original instinct, vergeth towards him as its center. Barrow.

I find myself verging to that period of life which is to be labor and sorrow. Swift.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.