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Barrier vs Verge - What's the difference?

barrier | verge | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between barrier and verge

is that barrier is a structure that bars passage while verge is a rod or staff of office, e.g. of a verger.

As a verb verge is

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

barrier

Noun

(en noun)
  • A structure that bars passage.
  • An obstacle or impediment.
  • * {{quote-magazine, title=Towards the end of poverty
  • , date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=11, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=America’s poverty line is $63 a day for a family of four. In the richer parts of the emerging world $4 a day is the poverty barrier . But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 ([…]): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.}}
  • A boundary or limit.
  • Derived terms

    * barrier reef * color barrier * crash barrier * diffusion-barrier * half-barrier * ice barrier * language barrier * racial barrier * sound barrier * tilt barrier * tire barrier * toll barrier

    verge

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) , of unknown origin. Earliest attested sense in English is now-obsolete meaning "male member, penis" (c.1400). Modern sense is from the notion of 'within the verge' (1509, also as (etyl) dedeinz la verge ), i.e. "subject to the Lord High Steward's authority" (as symbolized by the rod of office), originally a 12-mile radius round the royal court, which sense shifted to "the outermost edge of an expanse or area."

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A rod or staff of office, e.g. of a verger.
  • # 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.
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:Even though we go to the extreme verge of possibility to invent a supposition favourable to it, the theoryimplies an absurdity.
  • *(Matthew Arnold) (1822-1888)
  • *:But on the horizon's verge descried, / Hangs, touched with light, one snowy sail.
  • *
  • *: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.
  • # The grassy area between the sidewalk and the street; a tree lawn.
  • #(lb) An extreme limit beyond which something specific will happen.
  • #:
  • (lb) The phallus.
  • #(lb) The external male organ of certain mollusks, worms, etc.
  • An old measure of land: a virgate or yardland.
  • A circumference; a circle; a ring.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:The inclusive verge / Of golden metal that must round my brow.
  • (lb) The shaft of a column, or a small ornamental shaft.
  • :
  • (lb) The edge of the tiling projecting over the gable of a roof.
  • :
  • (lb) The spindle of a watch balance, especially one with pallets, as in the old vertical escapement.
  • Synonyms

    * (strip of land between street and sidewalk) see list at (m)

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (compare versus); strongly influenced by the above noun.

    Verb

    (verg)
  • To be or come very close; to border; to approach.
  • Eating blowfish verges on insanity.

    References

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