minimum vs verge

minimum

noun
  • The lowest limit. 

  • The smallest amount. 

  • He always tries to get away with doing the minimum. 

  • A period of minimum brightness or energy intensity (of a star). 

  • The smallest member of a batch or sample or the lower bound of a probability distribution. 

  • A lower bound of a set which is also an element of that set. 

adj
  • To the lowest degree. 

verge

noun
  • An extreme limit beyond which something specific will happen. 

  • A rod or staff of office, e.g. of a verger. 

  • The grassy area between the footpath and the street; a tree lawn; a grassed strip running alongside either side of an outback road. 

  • The stick or wand with which persons were formerly admitted tenants, by holding it in the hand and swearing fealty to the lord. Such tenants were called tenants by the verge. 

  • An edge or border. 

  • An old measure of land: a virgate or yardland. 

  • The spindle of a watch balance, especially one with pallets, as in the old vertical escapement. 

  • The shaft of a column, or a small ornamental shaft. 

  • A circumference; a circle; a ring. 

  • The eaves or edge of the roof that projects over the gable of a roof. 

verb
  • To be or come very close; to border; to approach. 

  • To bend or incline; to tend downward; to slope. 

How often have the words minimum and verge occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )