２０画 水部
【音読み】 ヒン
There are three elements to this kanji: water, walk, and head. According to 漢字原, the first two pieces signify a pair of legs standing at the water's edge. Apparently, the head is supposed to represent the closely knit lines on a furrowed brow. Presumably, someone is debating whether or not to take the plunge, but doesn't like the look of things.
At first glance, this character doesn't look like it has much going for it; it's not on the general use list, and only manages to appear in a grand total of three words upon consulting 広辞苑, none of which have a Priority marking in EDICT. However, from what I can see, two of the words are written often enough and without furigana to make the 音読み worth remembering.
First, let's get the one word that is of little, if any, value out of the way: 頻海 （ひんかい） - "At the edge of the sea." Producing a paltry 209 hits when entered into Google, I think it safe to disregard.
Moving on to the two words that are actually in use; the first is 瀕する （ひんする）- "On the brink of..." The most common example I can find is 危機に瀕する - "Be on the brink of a crisis". I recently saw it used in Olympus' February 2007 catalogue in reference to 岩合光昭's wonderful Panda photographs; 絶滅に瀕している - "On the brink of extinction".
The final word listed is 瀕死 （ひんし） - "On the verge of death." In fact this one is the whole reason why I started to look into this the meaning of 瀕 in the first place. I came across it in an article about M. Night Shyamalan's film Lady In The Water in the November 2006 issue of Screen. When explaining the story it uses the following phrase; （彼女）は瀕死の重傷を負ってしまう - "She was mortally wounded." Or if you prefer, "She was fatally injured."
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