margin

To add a margin to.

Noun

  1. The edge of the paper, typically left blank when printing but sometimes used for annotations etc.
  2. The edge or border of any flat surface.
    • Nothing could be more business-like than the construction of the stout dams, and nothing more gently rural than the limpid lakes, with the grand old forest trees marshalled round their margins like a veteran army that...
    • The lobule margins, furthermore, are arched away from the lobe, with the consequence that (when fully inflated) the abaxial leaf surface forms the interior lining of the lobule. - 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The...
  3. The edge defining inclusion in or exclusion from a set or group.
    • As far as space is concerned, Mary Lamb finds herself at the farthest margin of society - among tramps - when the novel begins. - 1999, Pierre François, Inlets of the Soul: Contemporary Fiction in English and the Myth...
  4. A difference or ratio between results, characteristics, scores.
    • margin of victory
    • Chelsea will point to that victory margin as confirmation of their superiority - but Spurs will complain their hopes of turning the game around were damaged fatally by Atkinson's decision. - 2012 April 15, Phil McNulty,...
    • in Kentucky, for example, Trump beat Hillary Clinton by a nearly two-to-one margin - 2017 March 9, James P. Pinkerton, “A Deus ex Machina for the Climate Change Problem”, in The American Conservative:
  5. A permissible difference; allowing some freedom to move within limits.
    • margin of error
  6. The yield or profit; the selling price minus the cost of production.
  7. Collateral security deposited with a broker, to compensate the broker in the event of loss in the speculative buying and selling of stocks, commodities, etc.
    • The purchaser then hands over this margin to the person with whom he hypothecates the Stock. - 1848, William Armstrong, Stocks and Stock-Jobbing in Wall-Street:
    • If you borrow from your broker via trading on margin, you need to add monthly margin interest charges to your trading costs as well. - 2017, Joe Duarte, Trading Options For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 140:
  8. That which is ancillary; periphery.
    • This model merely nips at the margins.
  9. The shape of the edge of a leaf.
    • Red Whortleberry leaves have a crenate margin. - 1878, George Sampson V. Wills, A manual of vegetable materia medica - Issue 359, page 67:

Origin

From Middle English margyn, from Latin marginem (possibly via Old French margin), accusative of margō (“edge, brink, border, margin”). Doublet of marge and margo.

Forms

margins

Related

admarginate marginal marginalia marginalization marginalize

Derived

admarginate by a wide margin extensive margin gross margin intensive margin intermargin maintenance margin marginable margin account margin alert margin call margin-call margin debt marginirostral marginless margin of error margin of safety marginotomy margin shell margin trading net margin overmargin palaeomargin paleomargin

Verb

  1. To add a margin to.
  2. To enter (notes etc.) into the margin.
  3. To trade (securities etc.) on margin (collateral).
    • This sounds easy, but bear in mind that margined portfolios decline faster than cash portfolios in a bear market. - 2011, Richard Lehman, Lawrence G. McMillan, Options for Volatile Markets, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN,...

Forms

margins margining margined