margin

plural margins

1. mediaThe edge of the paper, typically left blank when printing but sometimes used for annotations etc.
2. The edge or border of any flat surface.

   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 Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page 7

   1 more example

   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 had marched down to drink, only to be stricken motionless at the water’s edge.

   1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad

3. figurativelyThe 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 of the Fall, page 186

4. A difference or ratio between results, characteristics, scores.

   margin of victory

   2 more examples

   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, “Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea”, in BBC

   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. businessThe yield or profit; the selling price minus the cost of production.
7. businessCollateral 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

   1 more example

   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. biologyThe 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

present singular third person margins · participle present margining · participle past margined · past margined

1. transitiveTo add a margin to; to furnish with a margin.

   The scale-like feathers of the breast are margined with rich metallic blue-green, which colour entirely covers the throat and sides of the neck, as well as the long pointed plumes which spring from the sides of the breast, and extend nearly as far as the end of the wings.

   1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 410

2. transitiveTo enter (notes etc.) into the margin.
3. transitivebusinessTo 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, page 90