Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A sharp cutting edge.
- noun A sharp, narrow edge or border.
- noun A wedge of metal used as a low-friction fulcrum for a balancing beam or lever.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The wedge-like piece of steel which serves as the axis on the fine edge of which a scale-beam, a pendulum, or any thing required to oscillate with the least possible friction rests and turns. See
balance .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Mech.) A piece of steel sharpened to an acute edge or angle, and resting on a smooth surface, serving as the axis of motion of a pendulum, scale beam, or other piece required to oscillate with the least possible friction.
- noun See
Illust. ofFile .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A piece of
steel sharpened to anacute edge or angle, and resting on a smooth surface, serving as theaxis ofmotion of apendulum , scale beam, or other piece required tooscillate with the least possiblefriction . - noun figuratively A
precarious balance that could beupset by a very smallforce in eitherdirection . - noun Used other than as an idiom: the
edge of aknife .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the sharp cutting side of the blade of a knife
- noun a narrow boundary
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Then came the rush, five policemen, in single file, with superb steadiness, running along the knife-edge.
Koolau the Leper 2010
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He gazed into the gulf on either side and ran his eyes along the knife-edge he must travel.
Koolau the Leper 2010
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Despite the team's rise from the brink, the season essentially remains on a knife-edge.
Arsène Wenger greets 2012 with optimism after ending Arsenal's 'crisis' 2012
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He tried to save himself by throwing his body across the knife-edge; but at that moment he knew death.
Koolau the Leper 2010
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But Fox News had to suddenly cut away from Palin to hear third place loser Jon Huntsman flap his jaws.9.40pm: Tim Carney of the Washington Examiner uses an apt sports metaphor:9.39pm: Back to the knife-edge battle between Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum: with 46% of precincts in, Gingrich is a mere 74 votes ahead of Santorum.
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My view of the economy is that there is no knife-edge, and that the recovery has a long way to go before inflation becomes a legitimate worry.
Knife-edge Macroeconomics, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
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He wears black clothes, pants creased to a knife-edge, loose shirts with mandarin collars.
Can Christoph Eschenbach and the National Symphony Orchestra give each other a fresh start? Anne Midgette 2010
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And after Davies gives a number of remarkable facts about the incredible fine-tuning of the universe, he adds, “The cliché that “life is balanced on a knife-edge” is a staggering understatement in this case: no knife in the universe could have an edge that fine.”
Modern Science in the Bible Ben Hobrink 2011
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One of the more irritating tropes in economic journalism is the "knife-edge" metaphor.
Knife-edge Macroeconomics, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
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The maid with the twisted arms lay below in the thicket and kept watch on the knife-edge passage.
Koolau the Leper 2010
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