leeway

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

• IPA^(key): [ˈliːˌweɪ]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːweɪ

leeway (countable and uncountable, plural leeways)

1. The drift of a ship or airplane in a leeward direction.
2. A varying degree or amount of freedom or flexibility; margin, latitude, elbowroom.
   • 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. (Britain) An adverse discrepancy or variation in a cumulative process, usually in the phrase make up leeway.

• (varying degree or amount of freedom): freedom, flexibility, latitude, wiggle room

• lee
• leeward