Verge \Verge\, 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.
1. (Zo["o]l.) The external male organ of certain mollusks,
worms, etc. See Illustration in Appendix.
Syn: Border; edge; rim; brim; margin; brink.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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