margin

Pluralmargins

Formsmargins, margining, margined

1. 1
   nouncountable

   The blank space along the edge of a printed page, usually left empty but sometimes used for notes.

   The editor's corrections filled the margin beside each paragraph.

   Printers set generous margins to keep text from running off the page.

   Note

   The page sense keeps the Latin close. Latin margō meant "edge, brink, border," and English took it through Middle English margyn, perhaps by way of Old French. Marge and margo are doublets of the same word. Printers set margins in the plural, because the space is reserved on every side of the text block for binding and trimming as well as for annotation.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   An allowable amount of difference that leaves room to move or adjust within set limits.

   The schedule had little margin for delay, so any holdup pushed everything back.

   Engineers add a margin to every load limit to keep the structure safe.

   Similarleeway, room, allowance, buffer, latitude

   Note

   The fixed phrase is margin of error, and it separates this sense from the gap between results. That margin is measured after the fact, while this one is allowed for in advance. It also takes for, naming what the room is meant to absorb, as in little margin for delay.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   The profit left when the cost of producing something is subtracted from its selling price.

   Supermarkets often survive on a thin margin per item, relying on huge sales volume.

   Rising material costs squeezed the company's margin last quarter.

   Similarprofit

   Note

   Business uses this sense constantly, in talk of thin or squeezed margins. A margin can be stated per unit or as a percentage of revenue. In finance it shares its spelling with the broker's collateral, a different idea. This margin is money a sale earns, and that one is money a trader puts up. On margin always points to the collateral.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   The amount by which one result, score, or characteristic differs from another, given as a difference or a ratio.

   The bill passed by a narrow margin of just five votes.

   He beat the previous record by a wide margin.

   Similardifference, gap

   Note

   Here margin measures the gap once the result is in, and it usually arrives with by: passed by a narrow margin, or, in Kentucky, beat Hillary Clinton by a nearly two-to-one margin. That last case shows it can be a ratio as well as a raw count. Sports writing also uses it as a modifier, as in Phil McNulty's victory margin, alongside the fuller margin of victory.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   The outer edge of any flat surface, or the border that runs along it.

   A line of reeds marked the margin of the lake.

   The trail follows the eastern margin of the forest.

   Similaredge, border, rim, fringe, verge

6. 6
   nounfigurativelycountable

   The boundary that determines whether someone or something belongs to a group or is excluded from it.

   Reformers worked to bring people from the margin of society into full membership.

   Their beliefs placed them at the margin of the mainstream church.

   Similarfringe, edge, periphery

   Oppositecenter

7. 7
   nouncountable

   The peripheral or secondary part of something, away from its main focus.

   These concerns remained at the margin of the debate, never central to it.

   The discovery moved from the margin of science to its very core.

   Similarperiphery, fringe, edge, sidelines

   Oppositecenter, core, heart

   Note

   This sense is usually plural and usually follows at. A change that nips at the margins touches only the edges of a problem and leaves its center alone. The phrase often carries a note of criticism, as the merely in "merely nips at the margins" shows: the effort is too slight to reach what matters.

8. 8
   noununcountable

   Collateral deposited with a broker to cover potential losses from speculative trading in stocks, commodities, or similar.

   She bought the shares on margin, borrowing against the collateral in her account.

   When prices fell, the firm demanded additional margin to secure the position.

   Similarcollateral, deposit, security

   Note

   Collateral of this kind is old Wall Street vocabulary. William Armstrong's Stocks and Stock-Jobbing in Wall-Street (1848) already has the purchaser handing over this margin. The working phrase is on margin, as in trading or buying on margin. Borrowing that way brings margin interest, a cost that Joe Duarte's Trading Options For Dummies (2017) adds to trading costs.

9. 9
   nouncountable

   The shape or form of the outer edge of a leaf.

   Botanists noted the finely toothed margin along each leaflet.

   The plant's leaves have a wavy margin, unlike its smooth-edged relative.

   Similaredge

   Note

   Botanists describe a leaf margin with a fixed vocabulary of entire, serrate, dentate, crenate and lobed, and they use it as a diagnostic feature in identification. George Sampson V. Wills's A manual of vegetable materia medica (1878) works this way: Red Whortleberry leaves have a crenate margin. The word names the pattern of the outline, not simply where the leaf ends.

10. 10
    verbtransitive

    To trade securities or commodities using collateral deposited with a broker.

    Traders often margin volatile commodities to amplify potential gains.

    She chose to margin her holdings, borrowing against them to expand her portfolio.

    Similarleverage

    Note

    The finance verb shows up readily as a participle used like an adjective. Richard Lehman and Lawrence G. McMillan's Options for Volatile Markets (2011) warns that margined portfolios decline faster than cash portfolios in a bear market. That is the cost of the leverage. Behind the verb stands the phrase on margin, from the broker's collateral.

11. 11
    verbtransitive

    To enter notes or comments into the blank edge of a page.

    Readers margin their reactions alongside the printed text.

    He margined several corrections before passing the draft back.

    Similarannotate, note

12. 12
    verbtransitive

    To add a margin or border to something.

    Designers margin the layout to keep text away from the edges.

    She margined the sheets evenly on all four sides.

    Similarborder, edge, frame

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