| 释义 |
brink|brɪŋk|
Forms: 3–4 brenk, 3–6 brynke, 5–6 brynke, 5–7 brinke, 6 brinck, 3– brink.
[ME. brink (brenk), not known in OE.; corresp. to MDu. brinc (Du. brink), MLG. brink ‘edge of a field, grass-land, side of a hill, hill’ (whence mod.G. brink ‘green hill, grass-land’), Sw. brink ‘descent of a hill’, Da. brink ‘steepness, precipice, declivity’, all masc., cogn. with ON. brekka fem. (:—brinkâ) ‘slope, hill-side, hill’. The Eng. word was prob. from Scandinavian. In sense brink formerly ran parallel with brim.]
1. The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, such as one might fall over, e.g. the ‘brink’ of a precipice, chasm, pit, ditch, grave. on the brink of the grave (fig.): near death. [This is the specific current sense, which now also affects the use of 2, and entirely colours the figurative use in 5; but it is doubtful whether the first two quotations do not rather belong to 2.]
a1300Ancr. R. 242 Þe horse þet is scheouh, and blencheð uor one scheadewe upo þe heie brugge, and falleð adun into þe watere of þe heie brugge [MS. Titus D. xviii. brinke]. c1325E.E. Allit. P. B. 384 Vche a dale so depe þat demmed at þe brynkez. c1386Chaucer Frankl. T. 130 And caste hir eyen dounward fro the brynke [v.r. brinke, brenke]. ― Merch. T. 157, I am hoor and old, And almost at [v.r. on] my pittes brinke. a1400Chester Pl. 68 Your owine childe for to spill Upon this hilles brinke? 1588Shakes. Tit. A. ii. iii. 241 Of this deepe pit..I haue no strength to plucke thee to the brinke. 1667Milton P.L. ii. 918 The warie fiend Stood on the brink of Hell and look'd a while. 1709Berkeley Ess. Vision §148 He shall come to the brink of a precipice. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xxxix. (1856) 355 Upon the brink of the cleanly-separated fissures. 1871Morley Voltaire (1886) 209 Tottering on the brink of the grave. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 170 The church..is now on the very brink of the cliff.
2. The edge of the land bordering a piece of water, as a river, lake, the sea: formerly = ‘bank, shore, brim’; now esp. when this rises abruptly from the water: thus running into sense 1.
a1300K. Horn 141 Schup, bi þe se flode..Bi þe se brinke. a1300Cursor M. 1766 Þe burnes ouer þe brink [Fairf. brenk] it brast. 1382Wyclif Gen. xli. 3 Thei weren fedde in the brenke of the flood [1611 vpon the brinke of the riuer]. 1387Trevisa Higden Rolls Ser. I. 65 By þe see brynkes [juxta marium margines]. 1480Caxton Descr. Brit. 17 A ryall cite vpon the brinke of twede. 1483― Gold. Leg. 58/2 They sawe thegypcyens lyeng deed upon the brynkes of the see. 1553Eden Treat. New Ind. (Arb.) 7 Azron Gaber, by the brinke of the redde sea. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 22 Reeds defend the winding Water's Brink. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. II. 36 Their habitations on the brink, or in the neighborhood of some lake. 1847Grote Greece ii. lii, On the brink of the sea. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 630 They marched..to the brink of the Boyne.
†3.
a. The brim of a vessel; = brim 4. Obs. or dial.
1382Wyclif 2 Chron. iv. 2 He maad..a ȝoten se of tenn cubitis fro brynke vnto brynk. c1440Promp. Parv. 52 Brynke of a wesselle. a1500Songs & Carols (1847) 56 Fyll the cope by the brynk. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §148 Thou muste spare at the brynke and not at the bottom. 1542Boorde Dyetary xii. (1870) 265 Fat doth swymme aboue in the brynkes of the stomache. 1598Drayton Heroic. Ep. xxi. 151 A Bowle of Nectar, fill'd up to the Brinke. 1727Swift Baucis & Phil. Wks. 1755 III. ii. 33 Fill'd a large jug up to the brink.
b. The brim of a hat. dial.
1821Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 68 With weather-beaten hat of rusty brown, Stranger to brinks, and often to a crown.
†4.
a. gen. A margin, border, edge. Obs. or arch.
1388Wyclif Exod. xxv. 24 Make to it a goldun brynke. c1420Pallad. on Husb. i. 813 In places wete or moist make evry brynke Two foote in heght. c1432–50tr. Higden (1865) I. 309 In the brynkes of the lesse Asia. 1508Balade agst. Tymes, Prudence and policy are banyst our al brinkis. a1535More Wks. (1557) 81 The ytch of a sore leg, whan thou clawest about the brinkes. 1562W. Bullein Soarnes 20 b, The brinkes of the wounde, must be oiled with Rosed omphacine. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 381 His ears erected upright, as the ears of a Cat..the farthest brinkes or edges, and also his latter may be bended on the other side. 1724T. Hearne Pref. R. Glouc. §25. 81 In one part of this MS. at the very bottom, just on the Brink of a Page. 1812Byron Ch. Har. Wks. (1846) 14/2 note, All these are coop'd within one Quarto's brink.
†b. fig. arch.
1629Whittock in Rushw. Hist. Coll. (1659) I. 688 Now we are but upon the brink and skirts of the Cause. 1821Shelley Prometh. Unb. ii. v. 1 On the brink of the night and the morning.
5. fig. The very verge of some state, time, event, or action: now esp. in the phrases on, to, from the brink of, a discovery, ruin, destruction, death, eternity, anarchy, revolution, absurdity, etc.
1330R. Brunne Chron. 122 Scho dred þer assaute, hunger was at þe brynk. 1607Shakes. Timon v. i. 159 You..Surprize me to the very brinke of teares. 1671Marvell Corr. cxcii. Wks. (1872–5) II. 384 It is impossible we should rise before the very brinke of Easter. a1677Barrow Serm. (1686) III. 191 Old men..visibly stand upon the brink of eternity. 1722De Foe Moll Fland. (1840) 297, I was at the very brink of destruction. a1745Swift Wks. (1841) II. 63 To save them from the brink of ruin. 1758Johnson Idler No. 19 ⁋3 [They] follow them to the brink of absurdity. 1818M. W. Shelley Frankenst. (1865) 61 Sometimes on the very brink of certainty I failed. 1876Freeman Norm. Conq. V. xxiv. 367 As conqueror, he brought us to the brink of feudal anarchy; as despot, he saved us from passing the brink. 1884Graphic 158/3 The secret..on the brink of discovery.
b. with inf. (obs.) or gerund: On the very point of. (Now of something momentous or perilous.)
1702T. Smith in Pepys' Diary VI. 240 Upon the brink to complete fourscore. 1720Ozell Vertot's Rom. Rep. I. iv. 228 You were upon the Brink of falling a Prey to our Enemies. 1788Ld. Sheffield in Corr. Ld. Auckland II. 223 Trevor was on the brink of going to Petersburg. 1807–8W. Irving Salmag. xx. (1860) 468, I was on the brink of treating you with a full broadside. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. xvi, She is on the brink of being sold into wretchedness for life.
c. spec. the verge of war. Hence ˈbrinkmanship [-manship], the art of advancing to the very brink of war but not engaging in it; also transf. and fig.; hence (as a back-formation), ˈbrinkman, one who practises brinkmanship; ˈbrinkmanlike a.
[1840Mill Let. 30 Dec. in Wks. (1963) XIII. 459 They had been brought to the brink of a war.] 1956Life 16 Jan. 78 Says Dulles ‘..Of course we were brought to the verge of war... If you try to run away from it, if you are scared to go to the brink, you are lost... We walked to the brink and we looked it in the face.’ 1956N.Y. Times 26 Feb. 1/5 He [sc. Adlai Stevenson] derided the Secretary [sc. J. F. Dulles] for ‘boasting of his brinkmanship—the art of bringing us to the edge of the nuclear abyss’. 1958Ann. Reg. 1957 183 Anglo-French ‘brinkmanship’ over Suez had failed to stop at the brink. 1958S. Potter Supermanship 127 Brinkmanship is a clever way of describing the Dulles attitude. Ibid., Krushchev is the true Brinkman: his existence depending..on enemy-at-the-gatemanship. 1958Times 11 Nov., Jackson Pollock..was..one to whom every new painting was..almost an act of spiritual brinkmanship. 1958Economist 27 Dec. 1134/1 He [sc. Potter] is about to plunge, brinkmanlike, into International Lifemanship. 1967Spectator 18 Aug. 177/3 A policy of muddling through, of economic brinkmanship.
6. Comb. † brink-full, full to the brink, brimfull; brinkless, without any brink or border.
1553Bale Gardiner's Obed. G vij, With an emptie and free minde and not already brynke full. 1565Golding Ovid's Met. viii. (1593) 207 The hunger of his brinklesse maw the gulfe that naught might fill. |