Dictionary

leeway en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• [ˈliːˌweɪ]
• (US) audio

Etymology

From lee (“side away from the wind”) + way.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The drift of a ship or aeroplane in a leeward direction.
2. (countable, uncountable) A varying degree or amount of freedom or flexibility.
   • It was 1.6 [a.m.] when we got the road, and now we had 13 lost minutes to regain. But the "Condor" schedule has so much leeway that, with the diesel power, the loss was easily recouped. 1960 January, G. Freeman Allen, “"Condor"—British Railways' fastest freight train”, in Trains Illustrated, page 49:
   • "There's an hourly service to Nunthorpe and by the time you add in the Whitby trains as well there is hardly any leeway on the single line between Middlesbrough and Nunthorpe so it would involve quite significant infrastructure on the existing railway." 2020 January 2, Graeme Pickering, “Fuelling the changes on Teesside rails”, in Rail, page 61:
   • 2005, James Gosling et al., The Java Language Specification, Third Edition, Prentice Hall PTR, →ISBN, section 15.4 “FP-strict Expressions”, Within an expression that is not FP-strict, some leeway is granted for an implementation to use an extended exponent range to represent intermediate results; […]
   • I don't think we have a lot of leeway when it comes to proper formatting.
3. (UK, countable, uncountable) An adverse discrepancy or variation in a cumulative process, usually in the phrase make up leeway.
   • [...] there was plenty of opportunity to modernise in the years up to 1939, but since then the Second World War and its aftermath of expenditure rigidly controlled by Government held up any progress until at last the purse-strings were unloosed five years ago. But an enormous amount of leeway needs to be made up. 1960 April, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Trains Illustrated, page 209:

Forms

Relateds

leeward · lee

Synonyms

flexibility · margin · latitude · elbowroom · wiggle room · freedom

Translations (57)

cs odklon od kurzu (drift of a ship or aeroplane in a leeward direction) · fr latitude (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · nl afdrift (drift of a ship or aeroplane in a leeward direction) · cmn 余地 (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · nl speling (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · sh zanošenje (drift of a ship or aeroplane in a leeward direction) · de Spielraum (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · sv spelrum (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · sk rezerva (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · sh sloboda kretanja (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · id keleluasaan (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · pt margem (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · de Abdrift (drift of a ship or aeroplane in a leeward direction) · it deriva (drift of a ship or aeroplane in a leeward direction) · es largueza (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · es margen de maniobra (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · sh manevarski prostor (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · ru дрейф (drift of a ship or aeroplane in a leeward direction) · ru относи́тельная свобо́да де́йствий (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · sk tolerancia (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · cs volnost (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · es margen (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · he טְרִידַת רוּחַ (drift of a ship or aeroplane in a leeward direction) · es espacio (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · id kelonggaran (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · fi liikkumavara (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · nb slingringsmonn (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · es manga ancha (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · it scarroccio (drift of a ship or aeroplane in a leeward direction) · ja 余裕 (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · cs skluz (adverse discrepancy or variation in a cumulative process) · de Rückstand (adverse discrepancy or variation in a cumulative process) · sk voľnosť (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · ga saoirse (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · cs manévrovací prostor (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · de Versäumte (adverse discrepancy or variation in a cumulative process) · cs zpoždění (adverse discrepancy or variation in a cumulative process) · ga solúbthacht (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · nl speelruimte (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · fr marge (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · es tolerancia (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · de Freiraum (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · fi sorto (drift of a ship or aeroplane in a leeward direction) · ja 偏流量 (drift of a ship or aeroplane in a leeward direction) · nl afdrijving (drift of a ship or aeroplane in a leeward direction) · es deriva (drift of a ship or aeroplane in a leeward direction) · es libertad (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · fi pelivara (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · sv avdrift (drift of a ship or aeroplane in a leeward direction) · es latitud (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · pt deriva (drift of a ship or aeroplane in a leeward direction) · es flexibilidad (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · it margine di azione (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · ja 余地 (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · sv utrymme (degree or amount of freedom or flexibility) · ja 風圧量 (drift of a ship or aeroplane in a leeward direction) · fr dérive (drift of a ship or aeroplane in a leeward direction)