Verged

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To move toward a limit or boundary while leaning in a certain direction, or to gradually come closer to meeting at a specific point or edge over time
2. To approach or lean toward a particular limit or direction while gradually arriving at a common point or edge of convergence
3. To come close to the edge or boundary of something ; to incline or tilt in a specific direction

Etymology: The verb "verge" has two roots that merged. One is Latin "vergere", meaning "to bend, turn, tend toward, incline", which is where the idea of drawing close to something comes from. The other is the noun "verge", borrowed from Middle French and ultimately from Latin "virga", meaning "shoot, rod, stick". That noun once carried a startlingly blunt meaning in English: its earliest recorded sense, around 1400, was "male member", a use now obsolete. The modern sense of the noun owes much to a rod of office. In 1509 English speakers were using the phrase "within the verge" for the area subject to the authority of the Lord High Steward, symbolized by his rod. That zone originally covered a radius of about twelve miles around the royal court. Over time the sense drifted from the court's jurisdiction to the outermost edge of any area. The verb's sense of "coming close to" grew out of the Latin idea of tending toward something, and it was strongly reinforced by the noun, so the two strands blended in English.

Synonyms: bordered, approached, neared, touched, sloped

Antonyms: diverged, separated, departed, distanced, strayed