Idiom
bleeding edge
Meaning
Something too new and untested to be reliable or to have any assurance of safety; the figurative place where such things exist.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“That phone uses bleeding edge technology.”
“Startups often build on bleeding edge tools that break without warning.”
“The surgeon warned that the experimental procedure remained bleeding edge, with outcomes no one could yet predict.”
Examples
simple
“That phone uses bleeding edge technology.”
contextual
“Startups often build on bleeding edge tools that break without warning.”
complex
“The surgeon warned that the experimental procedure remained bleeding edge, with outcomes no one could yet predict.”
Origin
A 20th-century blend of *bleed* and *leading edge*, formed as a metaphorical extension of the *cutting edge*. The term implies a position so far at the forefront of advancement that the metaphorical sword has begun to draw blood.
Key words
Related idioms
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