leeway
Americannoun
-
extra time, space, materials, or the like, within which to operate; margin.
With ten minutes' leeway we can catch the train.
-
a degree of freedom of action or thought.
His instructions gave us plenty of leeway.
- Synonyms:
- cushion, flexibility, latitude
-
Also called sag. Nautical. the amount or angle of the drift of a ship to leeward from its heading.
-
Aeronautics. the amount a plane is blown off its normal course by cross winds.
noun
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room for free movement within limits, as in action or expenditure
-
sideways drift of a boat or aircraft
Etymology
Origin of leeway
Explanation
Leeway is a term used to describe the amount of freedom available. If you know you have a paper due on Monday, you might ask your teachers if there is any leeway––could you, say, bring it first thing Tuesday morning? Leeway is a nautical term, referring to a vessel's drift to the lee, (nautical for "downwind"). Now, it is very useful in describing those gray areas in life––for example, everyone has a ten-minute leeway when meeting friends where you're not officially late, even if you're not actually on time.
Vocabulary lists containing leeway
Dear Martin
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Ghost Squad
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A Long Way Home
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
That’s a far cry from the pandemic era, when workers felt the leeway to jump to different jobs.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 10, 2026
Nonprofit legal organizations have more leeway to pursue penalties for other allegations employees experienced, even if the individual worker named in the lawsuit did not personally experience all of them.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 26, 2026
Testing marketing messages with AI-simulated people is a relatively low-stakes task compared with healthcare settings, Brown said, and offers some leeway in case the AI goes awry.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 6, 2026
Given "the fear of falling behind" the United States and China in developing AI technologies, Prissard said that Europe may succumb to the "temptation to allow more leeway to innovate without obstacles".
From Barron's • Feb. 21, 2026
He smashed Theo, Evan, and Ian under his mental heel because it encouraged them to try to beat him, but he always gave Jetta and Art some leeway.
From "Made You Up" by Francesca Zappia
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
