headroom
Etymology
head + room
noun
-
The vertical clearance above someone's head, as in a tunnel, doorway etc. -
The vertical measurement, top to bottom, for example for clearance under a bridge. With a rare and beautiful ease one can now ring up a boffin, as I did the other day, and say: "As a price for not opposing our Parliamentary Powers for a new marshalling yard, the Council at X demands that the bridge over X Lane shall have 16 ft. 6 in. headroom. This means steepening our gradient from 1 in 70 to 1 in 65 for half a mile on a 20-chain curve. What difference will this make to the loads of Type "2", "3" and "4" diesels please?". Back comes the answer. 1960 April, G. F. Fiennes, “Unpunctuality - the cause and the cure”, in Trains Illustrated, page 244The new bridge (6) gives headroom of 13ft at high tide, sufficient for present-day river traffic. 1963 April, “Chepstow Bridge is rebuilt”, in Modern Railways, page 265, photo caption -
(electronics) The ability of a system to reproduce loud sounds free of distortion; dynamic headroom. […] the difference between signal-to-noise ratio and overload reserve (headroom) as well as noise (safety) margin (footroom). 2000, Wolfgang Ahnert, Frank Steffen, Sound Reinforcement Engineering: Fundamentals and Practice, page 177 -
The distance between the actual performance of an algorithm and its maximum possible performance. -
Synonym of headspace (“space between the top of the contents of a container and its seal”) For whole pickles and fruit preserves, leave no less than ½ inch of headroom at the top of the jars […] 2014, Damon Lee Fowler, Beans, Greens, & Sweet Georgia Peaches: The Southern Way of Cooking Fruits and Vegetables, 2nd edition, Guilford: Globe Pequot Press, page 11
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