Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The point in a course of action beyond which reversal is not possible.
- n. The point in the flight of an aircraft beyond which there is insufficient fuel for return to the starting point.
Wiktionary
- n. aviation The point in an aircraft's flight when there is insufficient fuel to reverse direction and return to the place of origin.
- n. idiomatic The point in any journey, process, or sequence of events when it is no longer possible to reverse course or stop the process.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a line that when crossed permits of no return and typically results in irrevocable commitment
Examples
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Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘point of no return’.
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Thresholds
we are all just passing through.
(boundaries, portals and liminal spaces/times)cockcrow, interface, thin line, portal, postern, littoral, portico, porch, stoop, strand, liminal, limen and 304 more...
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A Long, Strange Trip
You'll definitely need a map. Inspired by Son of Groucho's comment on Islets of Langerhans.
slough of despond, pit of despair, den of iniquity, islets of langerhans, hippocampus, boulevard of brok..., canals of hering, hesselbach's tria..., crypts of lieberkühn, angle of louis, circle of willis, traube's space and 102 more...
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Another day, a whole nother list
rump, spot on, flank, outflank, rank, bedeck, leafhopper, apocope, academic, set-to, point of no return, cloy and 210 more...
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ramsler Related to the phrase, 'tipping point'. The distinction being that a 'point of no return' does not have any capability of being returned back to its starting state or position and is sometimes approached linearly without necessarily having a sudden acceleration past a certain point whereas a 'tipping point' implies the existence of multiple stable positions between which a system or object alternate and a non-linear change in the system or object at the tipping point. Jun 19, 2009