headway
[In I. short for ahead-way; in II. f. head n.1 + way n.]
I. 1. Of a ship: Motion ahead or forward; rate of progress.
| 1748 Anson's Voy. ii. i. 112 By means of the head-way we had got, we loofed close in. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) R r ij, The head-way..is..feeble. 1809 W. Irving Knickerb. (1849) 88 She made as much leeway as headway. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. i, The boat made slight headway against it [the tide]. |
2. transf. and fig. Advance, progress (in general).
| 1775 Ash, Headway, the act of moving forward, the motion of advancing. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. II. iv. i, There is rearing, rocking, vociferation; not the smallest headway. 1887 Jessopp Arcady v. 159 Rarely, except in the open parishes, do the demagogues make headway. |
II. 3. Arch. Room over head; the clear height of a doorway, arch, tunnel, or the like.
| 1775 Ash, Headway,..room for the head to pass. 1842–76 Gwilt Archit. Gloss., Headway of Stairs, the clear distance, measured perpendicularly, from a given landing place or stair to the ceiling above. 1861 Smiles Engineers II. 355 The strength as well as lightness of a bridge of this material..is of great moment where headway is of importance. 1892 Pall Mall G. 23 Feb. 3/3 The bridge has a clear headway of 20 ft. 6 in. above high water. |
4. Mining. (Also headways.) A narrow passage or ‘gallery’ connecting the broad parallel passages or ‘boards’ in a coal mine.
| 1708 J. C. Compl. Collier (1845) 41 This Headways..or first working..is carried on, according to the Grain of the Coal, as it lies along the Grain, and not cross the Grain. Ibid. 42 A Yard and a Quarter broad or wide for a Headways. 1839 Penny Cycl. XV. 247 A series of broad parallel passages or bords..communicating with each other by narrower passages or ‘headways’. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss. s.v., The headways are the second set of excavations in post-and-stall work. |
5. The interval of time or the distance between two consecutive trains, trams, buses, etc., running on the same route and in the same direction. orig. U.S.
| 1895 in Funk's Standard Dict. 1900 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 2 Mar. 315/1 The headway between the carriers is fixed say at ten or twenty seconds. 1930 Oxford Times 21 Mar. 17/4, I think Route 2 should have a six-minute headway between 8 a.m. and 10.30 a.m. Ibid., Until the headway was closed to 15 minutes in the morning, and 12 minutes in the afternoon, serious inadequacy existed. 1970 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 17 Dec. 1/3 The 30-minute headway between each bus reduced to a 50-minute head⁓way. 1971 Mod. Railways May 193/3 Page 105 of the March Modern Railways indicates a new 17.11 Paddington to Bristol, first stop Didcot, thus providing a second 3 min headway to Didcot East Junction with the existing 17.15 to Worcester. |
6. Comb. headways course: see quots.
| 1851 Greenwell Coal-trade Terms Northumb. & Durh. 30 Headways Course, a line of walls or holings, extending from side to side of a pannel of boards. 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining, Headways Course, when a set of headings or walls extend from side to side of a set of boards, they are said to be driven headways course. |