margin of safetynoun [ C ]
ukusalso safety marginsomething that protects someone by making it possible for there to be an amount of risk or a number of mistakes without having a very damaging effect:
Our environmental laws are designed to make sure that people are protected to an adequate margin of safety.
A mix of stocks and bonds can provide a needed margin of safety when there's a stock market sell-off.
ACCOUNTING the difference between a company’s sales and what it must sell in order to break even (= make neither a profit nor a loss)