LEEWAY

Leeway

Leeway is the amount of drift motion to leeward of an object floating in the water caused by the component of the wind vector that is perpendicular to the object’s forward motion. The National Search and Rescue Supplement to the International Aeronautical and Maritime Search and Rescue Manual defines leeway as "the movement of a search object through water caused by winds blowing against exposed surfaces". However, the resultant total motion of an object is made up of the leeway drift and the movement of the upper layer of the ocean caused by the surface currents, tidal currents and ocean currents. Objects with a greater exposure to each element will ...

The above text is a snippet from Wikipedia: Leeway
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

leeway

Noun

  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.
    I don't think we have a lot of leeway when it comes to proper formatting.
  3. An adverse discrepancy or variation in a cumulative process, usually in make up leeway.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: leeway
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

Need help with a clue?
Try your search in the crossword dictionary!