border on

border on (third-person singular simple present borders on, present participle bordering on, simple past and past participle bordered on)

1. (transitive) To share a border with.

   The town borders on the forest, so there are often deer on the road.

2. (transitive, figurative) To be almost like some other thing; to verge on.

   His behaviour borders on insanity.

   • 2012 September 7, Phil McNulty, “Moldova 0-5 England”, in BBC Sport‎:

     If Moldova harboured even the slightest hopes of pulling off a comeback that would have bordered on miraculous given their lack of quality, they were snuffed out 13 minutes before the break when Oxlade-Chamberlain picked his way through midfield before releasing Defoe for a finish that should have been dealt with more convincingly by Namasco at his near post.