From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishldoce_127_cfringefringe1 /frɪndʒ/ ●●○ noun [countable] 1 British EnglishDCB if you have a fringe, your hair is cut so that it hangs down over your forehead SYN bangs American English a tall girl with straight brown hair and a fringe2 DECORATEa decorative edge of hanging threads on a curtain, piece of clothing etc3 → on the fringes (of something) → the lunatic fringe at lunatic(3)
Examples from the Corpus
fringe• Today, its population has shrunk to only seven known populations on the distant fringes of metropolitan Southern California.• When she arrived at the edge of the covert, she made her way cautiously along its downhill fringes.• a lunatic fringe of cranks and reactionaries, who probably still believe that the earth is flat• Slowly people are moving away from the marginal fringe.• Crusading journalist William Lloyd Garrison represented the radical fringe.• I should say, it was the scum fringes of each group, not the majority of decent followers of the game.• The terrorist fringe condemned the decision and threatened to use force.• Hockey moved from the fringe to the mainstream when it went from a specialty item to a staple.• Something exploded on the fringe of his vision and sent out jagged streaks of orange flame like cartoon electricity.• In reality, however, even when the electrons are sent one at a time, the fringes still appear.fringefringe2 adjective [only before noun] → fringe group/event/issue etcExamples from the Corpus
fringe• If you were doing clinical research with a spiritual or religious factor, you were considered fringe.• Working condition fringe benefits are tax-free.• Prepaid plans for legal services are now available to over 2 million households as fringe benefits in union contracts.• Individuals would not pay taxes on interest or investment income, and businesses could not deduct the cost of fringe benefits.• The remaining 5 percent aligned themselves with fringe groups such as the Natural Law, Green and Libertarian parties.• Few attendees doubted that some fringe groups would respond violently.• That means making smaller purchases instead of one big buy and cutting back on fringe items.fringefringe3 verb [transitive] EDGEto be around the edge of something A line of trees fringed the pool.→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
fringe• Emily Groundwater's eyes opened widely, and he saw that they were smoke-grey, fringed by long dark lashes.• The river was clear and rushing and fringed by trees.• He let his gaze rest upon the awed and silent faces that fringed his passage, but without seeing them.• The fields here were fringed with rowan trees, their bright red berries clashing horribly with the purple heather of late summer.• The line formed a two-mile semicircle along the bank of a small creek that was fringed with woods.Fringe, thethe FringeFringe, the the theatre productions in the Edinburgh Festival which are not part of the official programme a Fringe production a comedian who was a great success at the FringeFrom Longman Business Dictionaryfringefringe /frɪndʒ/ adjective [only before a noun]COMMERCE relating to something that is in addition to the main or most important part of somethingThe company is a fringe player in the US with less than 2% of the car market.We were spending a lot of money on the fringe areas that weren’t producing results.Origin fringe1 (1300-1400) Old French Latin fimbria “threads” 