{
  "id": "over-the-edge.threshold",
  "term": "over the edge",
  "sense": "threshold",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 14,
  "arena": "phenomena",
  "domain": "emergence",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "a parameter that drifts past a wall where the window ends, and the thing continues but is no longer bounded by what held it before.",
  "folk_gloss": "something has gone too far and cannot be undone.",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "parameter.condition",
      "drift.aimless",
      "wall.range-end",
      "window.range",
      "boundary.limit"
    ],
    "interaction": "crossing without removal",
    "novel_properties": [
      "crossing without removal"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "In 2003, the Northeast Blackout began when a tree branch in Ohio crossed a power line, triggering cascading failures across the grid.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "The Aral Sea shrank by 90% after rivers feeding it were diverted for Soviet cotton irrigation in the 1960s.",
      "domain": "environment"
    },
    {
      "text": "Bitcoin's block size limit was exceeded in 2017, causing transaction delays and a fork into Bitcoin Cash.",
      "domain": "computing"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "over the edge"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — crossing without removal"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-over-the-edge.threshold"
}