She seemed perilously close to tears.

In Troy, Ohio, where many have bleak prospects of finding a job, life seems perilously close to the edge.

Aggravation levels seem perilously, ludicrously high around here.

A 14th-century monastery, perched near the precipice, seems perilously close to continuing the tradition.

Unfortunately, Europe as a whole these days sometimes seems perilously close to crashing.

But it seemed perilously close to desperation.

He could see the banks now, and they seemed perilously near in the faint morning light.

"But you don't understand," Bertha McLane said, in a voice that seemed perilously close to the breaking point.

They were turning off already, gliding down past an old brick church steeple that seemed perilously close to the descending ramp.

Some trees seem perilously close to suffocation.