slack space

plural slack spaces

1. A gap or void between two objects.
   1. countabledateduncountableEmpty space within any partially-occupied chamber or container, allowing for motion of the contents within the container.

      Toward the middle of the suction stroke the piston-pin leaves the upper bearing surfaces and after passing through the slack space, collides again with the lower surface.

      1925 May 29, Jack Holley, “Over the Workbench”, in Oil Engine Power, page 299

      2 more examples

      Each loose bottom is made with a groove to receive the cylindrical part, this part being made a slack fit to it, and by entering the groove more or less making the capacity of the mould less or greater […] The slack space in the groove is to be filled in with fire-clay, or grout may be poured in from the outside to prevent the escape of metal, and to prevent the entrance of air […]

      1872 November 6, Thomas Rogers Horton, “No. 3286: Horton's Impts. in Apparatus for the Manufacture of Bessemer Steel, etc.”, in English Patents of Inventions, Specifications: 1872, 3241 - 3288, page 13

      Articles should fit the outside container with no slack space. If the variety of containers has been reduced to a small number, and it is found that articles will not always fit, then some kind of dummy should be used to fill up the space so that the articles will not move around inside the carrying container.

      1931, Edward Dahill, “Container Hazards in Transportation”, in Progressive Packaging, page 60

      Synonyms: travel, clearance, cavity, hollow

   2. countableuncountablecomputingThe excess portion of any partially-occupied allocation unit, beyond the end of the file it contains.

      The data between the end of the logical file to the end of the cluster containing the data is called slack space. Slack space will usually contain data from files that used this space before, making it a rich depository of evidence.

      2006 March 6, Steve Bunting, William Wei, EnCase Computer Forensics, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 63