How to Use verge on/upon in a Sentence

verge on/upon

phrasal verb
  • Yet the stories that emerge from these wars can verge on their own sort of mythmaking.
    Gregg Carlstrom, Foreign Affairs, 6 Mar. 2024
  • Like Ebb Tide, the flower color can verge on black velvet.
    Benjamin Whitacre, Better Homes & Gardens, 14 Feb. 2023
  • Friends who verge on weeping openly over what’s happened to it.
    Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, 1 June 2024
  • But, the devotion of the Australian soccer fan can verge on absurd.
    Naaman Zhou, The New Yorker, 22 Nov. 2022
  • The hardest part of starting a conversation with a stranger is finding an excuse to talk to them that didn’t verge on the creepy.
    Martin Fritz Huber, Outside Online, 12 Jan. 2023
  • Their performances in this gonzo sci-fi fest verge on camp, as does the movie's Grand Guignol sense of violence.
    Katie Rife, EW.com, 19 Oct. 2023
  • As Kline freely admits, works like these verge on agitprop.
    Zoë Lescaze, New York Times, 17 Mar. 2023
  • For some parents, the thought of boarding a long-haul flight to Hawaii with kids might verge on nightmare territory.
    Parents, 13 May 2024
  • Some of the potatoes verge on foamy from being suspended in their gloopy atmosphere for so long, but c’est la vie!
    Alex Beggs, Bon Appétit, 25 Apr. 2024
  • As the set wore on, both sides found themselves on the verge on set points, but the other team continuously battled back.
    BostonGlobe.com, 6 June 2021
  • In recent seasons, the over-the-top looks seen on the show, which can verge on the impractical, have become memes on social media.
    Brande Victorian, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Aug. 2023
  • Wooden paneling and furniture are present in every room, but not once does the decor verge on gauche.
    Lydia Mansel, Condé Nast Traveler, 12 Jan. 2024
  • Smut even suggests Maas' titles verge on erotica, which is also a genre with immense worth and full of great writers.
    Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 1 Feb. 2024
  • At times the project of cataloging, or indeed defining, the threads of centuries of free thinking can verge on overly ambitious.
    Lauren Jackson, New York Times, 12 Mar. 2023
  • And then there are mountain peaks and other places that verge on inaccessible to humans.
    Michelle Theriault Boots, Anchorage Daily News, 24 Aug. 2021
  • In Japan and Britain, so much of the coastline is reinforced with concrete and rocks that natural beaches now verge on extinction.
    Taras Grescoe, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 July 2022
  • The 23-year-old with curly black hair is thoughtful and detail-oriented, given to long answers that verge on philosophical.
    Los Angeles Times, 31 Oct. 2022
  • To really lean into this cozy look, dial up the temperature even more with shades that verge on peach or terra-cotta.
    Jessica Bennett, Better Homes & Gardens, 23 Feb. 2022
  • Later on, the Moon conjoins expansive Jupiter to give us a double dose of optimistic luck -- that said, this could verge on overconfidence.
    Tarot Astrologers, Chicago Tribune, 11 July 2023
  • There are sequels; there are spinoffs; there are live-action retellings; there are brand extensions that verge on the mystifyingly abstract.
    Molly Fischer, The New Yorker, 13 June 2022
  • So yeah, like VanMoof, Cowboy e-bikes are high-tech proprietary computers-on-wheels with a feature set that can, at times, verge on gimmickry.
    Thomas Ricker, The Verge, 21 July 2023
  • The group’s seizure of Russian military sites sowed chaos, appearing to verge on open war with military authorities.
    Miriam Berger and Adam Taylor, Anchorage Daily News, 24 June 2023
  • The bottom of the leg is designed with pre-bent knees for unrestricted pedaling, while the slim cut through the thigh delivers a flattering silhouette that doesn’t verge on tight or compressive.
    Kevin Brouillard, Travel + Leisure, 15 Feb. 2023
  • Honesty is non-negotiable for Humberstone, whose songs verge on the deeply personal and often self-critical.
    Ellise Shafer, Variety, 13 Oct. 2023
  • The motivation behind their crime is so complex and unlikely as to verge on nonsensical.
    Time, 12 July 2023
  • Alongside such wishful uninhibitedness are scenes that verge on parody, as when Sam and another boy enjoy a lobster-and-champagne lunch on the beach, and the boy hands over a copy of Thomas Mann’s stories.
    New York Times, 5 Apr. 2022
  • Having a child might be a blessing or a difficulty within the tropes of a domestic drama, but the actual mechanics of bringing that child into the world verge on body horror, the genre perhaps best typified by the films of David Cronenberg.
    Alexandra Kleeman, New York Times, 21 Apr. 2023
  • What’s more, conventional wisdom in Hollywood says that biopics and documentaries that involve family members too directly can verge on hagiography.
    Kate Dwyer, New York Times, 2 Mar. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'verge on/upon.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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