on edge
79
4.3
- idiom
- Informal
- Everyone's been a bit on edge.
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Watch on YouTubeWe're on edge waiting to hear the name.
- We're on edge waiting to hear the name.
- Because I live for far too long feeling on edge, anxious, dysregulated, self loathing.
- The more you do this, the less on edge your body will be in similar situations.
- Well, yeah, For some reason, we were all a little on edge last year.
- Or you were just you were constantly on edge.
- And it is exhausting to walk through life always on edge.
- I'm going to be testing a, I'm already on edge about it, the Clarisonic Sonic Foundation brush.
- Don't be a hero because these people are on on edge.
- So that gets you incredibly on edge.
- And you notice that you start to feel less secure, less confident, more off balance, more kind of on edge when you're around this person.
- I was thinking like I was going to come out and say like, I'm always on edge now and literally you got me.
Examples
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Unable to see what was going on, I was feeling frustrated and a little bit on edge.
Academic text (2002) -
Everyone is on edge enough without guns getting fired in here.
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We're on edge waiting to hear the name.
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Well, yeah, For some reason, we were all a little on edge last year.
-
So most of us were on edge.
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We're all on edge tonight.
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Wow, I'm just so on edge recently.
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I'm a little on edge.
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It's just that I'm supposed to be hosting this thing, and I'm a little on edge.
Fiction book (2002) -
Parents and students are understandably on edge today as they arrive here for school.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Feeling nervous or upset about something that may go wrong
∞
1.3
Feeling worried and easily frightened
230
2.7
Feeling worried or nervous about something that might happen
87
5.0
Nervous and tense so you cannot relax
84
4.1
Feeling nervous, upset, and not calm
81
2.2
Suddenly afraid or worried because you think something bad might happen
35
5.2
Feeling nervous and tense, easily upset
21
4.1
Feeling sudden, strong fear that makes you act without thinking
13
4.6
Feeling nervous and unable to stay still
3
6.5
Feeling worried and tense before a difficult event
1
7.4
Feeling nervous and hurried after something sudden happens
Very nervous and unable to stay still because of worry or excitement
Very upset because of sudden events or news
Antonyms
How Anxious
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase 'on edge' uses a spatial metaphor (being 'on' or 'at' an 'edge') to signal heightened tension, so a learner who knows 'on' and 'edge' can plausibly infer a sense of being tense or at a limit. However, mapping a physical-location meaning to an emotional state requires a metaphorical leap and is not fully predictable without exposure; the construction is cross-linguistically common but only partially transparent.
Etymology
The idiom on edge comes from the image of someone standing with their feet right on the edge of a cliff, feeling unsteady and ready to fall. That's why it now means 'feeling tense or nervous'.