forward movement; progress in a forward direction:
The ship's headway was slowed by the storm.
2.
progress in general:
headway in a career.
3.
rate of progress:
a slight headway against concerted opposition.
4.
the time interval or distance between two vehicles, as automobiles, ships, or railroad or subway cars, traveling in the same direction over the same route.
Idioms
5.
make headway, to proceed forward; advance; progress.
the distance or time between consecutive trains, buses, etc, on the same route
Word Origin and History for make headway
headway
n.
c.1300, "main road, highway," from Old English heafodweg (see head (adj.) + way). Sense of "motion forward" first attested 1748, short for ahead-way; ultimately nautical (cf. leeway).
Idioms and Phrases with make headway
make headway
Advance, make progress, as in We haven't made any headway with this project. This expression, first recorded in 1887, uses headway in the nautical sense of “a vessel's forward movement.”