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.
11. (Zoöl.) The external male organ of
certain mollusks, worms, etc. See Illustration in
Appendix.
Syn. -- Border; edge; rim; brim; margin; brink.
Verge (?), v. i. [imp. & p.
p. Verged (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Verging (?).] [L. vergere to bend, turn, incline; cf. Skr.
v?j 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.