border

Bor"der , v. t. 1. To make a border for; to furnish with a border, as for ornament; as, to border a garment or a garden.

2. To be, or to have, contiguous to; to touch, or be touched, as by a border; to be, or to have, near the limits or boundary; as, the region borders a forest, or is bordered on the north by a forest.

The country is bordered by a broad tract called the "hot region."
Prescott.

Shebah and Raamah . . . border the sea called the Persian gulf.
Sir W. Raleigh.

3. To confine within bounds; to limit. [Obs.]

That nature, which contemns its origin,
Can not be bordered certain in itself.
Shak.

Bor"der , v. i. [imp. & p. p. Bordered (&?;); p. pr. & vb. n. Bordering.]

1. To touch at the edge or boundary; to be contiguous or adjacent; -- with on or upon as, Connecticut borders on Massachusetts.

2. To approach; to come near to; to verge.

Wit which borders upon profaneness deserves to be branded as folly.
Abp. Tillotson.

Bor"der (&?;), n. [OE. bordure, F. bordure, fr. border to border, fr. bord a border; of German origin; cf. MHG. borte border, trimming, G. borte trimming, ribbon; akin to E. board in sense 8. See Board, n., and cf. Bordure.]

1. The outer part or edge of anything, as of a garment, a garden, etc.; margin; verge; brink.

Upon the borders of these solitudes.
Bentham.

In the borders of death.
Barrow.

2. A boundary; a frontier of a state or of the settled part of a country; a frontier district.

3. A strip or stripe arranged along or near the edge of something, as an ornament or finish.

4. A narrow flower bed.

Border land, land on the frontiers of two adjoining countries; debatable land; -- often used figuratively; as, the border land of science. -- The Border, The Borders, specifically, the frontier districts of Scotland and England which lie adjacent. -- Over the border, across the boundary line or frontier.

Syn. -- Edge; verge; brink; margin; brim; rim; boundary; confine.