Meaning & use
cliff edge
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Meanings
nouncountable
The place where a high cliff ends and the land drops steeply to the ground or sea below.
Grammar: Countable and usually singular: stand near the cliff edge.
Patterns
- at the cliff edge
- near the cliff edge
The children were told not to go near the cliff edge.
We sat at the cliff edge and watched the waves.
A wooden fence marks the cliff edge along the path.
nounusually singularfigurative
A critical point beyond which a situation may suddenly become much worse, often used for money, rules or deadlines.
Grammar: Often used with fall off, face or be at: the economy faced a cliff edge.
Patterns
- fall off a cliff edge
- face a cliff edge
Many families faced a cliff edge when the support payments ended.
The company was at a cliff edge as the deadline drew closer.
Experts warned the country could fall off a cliff edge without a deal.
adjectivebefore a nounfigurative
Describing a situation in which a change causes a sudden and severe consequence rather than a gradual one.
Grammar: Often hyphenated before a noun: a cliff-edge decision.
Patterns
- cliff-edge decision
- cliff-edge moment
The vote created a cliff-edge moment for the party.
Farmers feared a cliff-edge drop in subsidies.
The scheme ends in a cliff-edge funding cut for charities.
Word forms
| plural | cliff edges |
|---|
Common combinations
- stand at the cliff edge
- They stood at the cliff edge and looked down.
- fall off a cliff edge
- Funding could fall off a cliff edge next year.
- crumbling cliff edge
- The path runs along a crumbling cliff edge.
- cliff-edge situation
- The talks reached a cliff-edge situation.
- teeter on the cliff edge
- The business teetered on the cliff edge for months.
Synonyms and how they differ
- precipice
- Precipice is a more dramatic or literary word for a steep drop and for a moment of great danger.
- brink
- Brink stresses being on the point of something terrible, whereas cliff edge suggests the sharp drop that comes after.
- drop-off
- Drop-off is a plain term for a steep decline in land or numbers, but cliff edge feels more dangerous.
- crisis point
- Crisis point names the moment of danger, while cliff edge pictures a sudden fall after it.
Opposites
Word family
- cliff noun
- a steep rock face, often by the sea
- edge noun
- the outer limit of something
- cliffhanger noun
- an exciting or uncertain ending to a story episode
- cliff face noun
- the steep front surface of a cliff
Commonly confused: cliff edge or cliffhanger? cliff edge or cliffs edge?
cliff edge vs cliffhanger
A cliffhanger is a suspenseful ending to a story, whereas a cliff edge is the physical edge or a sudden danger point.
cliff edge vs cliffs edge
The apostrophe-less phrase cliffs edge is a typing slip; the standard compound is cliff edge.
Practice
Without a new agreement, the charity warned, its funding would fall off a ___.
Choose one answer.
Fall off a cliff edge is the idiom for a sudden dangerous drop. The other nouns are places but do not carry that figurative meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cliff edge”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.