headspace
/ˈhɛdspeɪs
/noun [mass noun]
1The air or empty space left above the contents in a sealed container: pour the hot chutney into the jars, leaving 5 mm headspace...
- They have patented an interface for APCI-MS that uses a venturi pump to sample air from the nose, mouth or headspace above a food.
- Samples of headspace gas were taken periodically and evaluated for CFC content by GC.
- The size of the glass is another chief consideration - there has to be enough headspace for the aroma to develop.
2 informal A person’s state of mind or mindset: if you’re not in the right headspace for this stuff it’s going to bore you, no matter how well it’s done...
- Call it New Age bunk, but it is a mental discipline as well - and I do enter quite a different headspace after class.
- When I go there, it's simpler to get myself into the appropriate mom-visiting headspace, which is: I do anything she wants.
- Here is something I was inspired to write about the US elections, maybe because it was taking up too much of my headspace!
2.1Time to think clearly or to be free from mental pressures: I really need some headspace just now...
- There's no peace to concentrate, no physical space to find your headspace in.
- It's actually not so bad getting sick since it gives me a little more precious headspace.
- You justly resent intrusion into what you consider sacrosanct headspace.