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middling

 - 7 dictionary results

mid⋅dling

  [mid-ling]
Use middling in a Sentence
–adjective
1. medium, moderate, oraverage in size, quantity, or quality: The returns on such a large investment may be only middling.
2. mediocre; ordinary; commonplace; pedestrian: The restaurant's entrées are no better than middling.
3. Older Use. in fairly good health.
–adverb
4. moderately; fairly.
–noun
5. middlings, any of various products or commodities of intermediate quality, grade, size, etc., as the coarser particles of ground wheat mingled with bran.
6. Often, middlings. Also called middling meat. Chiefly Midland and Southern U.S. salt pork or smoked side meat.
Origin:
1375–1425; late ME (north). See mid 1 , -ling 2

Related forms:
mid⋅dling⋅ly, adverb

mid⋅dle

  [mid-l] adjective, noun, verb, -dled, -dling.
–adjective
1. equally distant from the extremes or outer limits; central: the middle point of a line; the middle singer in a trio.
2. intermediate or intervening: the middle distance.
3. medium or average: a man of middle size.
4. (initial capital letter) (in the history of a language) intermediate between periods classified as Old and New or Modern: Middle English.
5. Grammar. (in some languages) noting a voice of verb inflection in which the subject is represented as acting on or for itself, in contrast to the active voice in which the subject acts, and the passive voice in which the subject is acted upon, as in Greek, egrapsámēn “I wrote for myself,” égrapsa “I wrote,” egráphēn “I was written.”
6. (often initial capital letter) Stratigraphy. noting the division intermediate between the upper and lower divisions of a period, system, or the like: the Middle Devonian.
–noun
7. the point, part, position, etc., equidistant from extremes or limits.
8. the central part of the human body, esp. the waist: He gave him a punch in the middle.
9. something intermediate; mean.
10. (in farming) the ground between two rows of plants.
–verb (used with object), verb (used without object)
11. Chiefly Nautical. to fold in half.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME, OE middel; c. G mittel; akin to ON methal among. See mid 1

Synonyms:
1. equidistant, halfway, medial, midway. 7. midpoint. Middle, center, midst indicate something from which two or more other things are (approximately or exactly) equally distant. Middle denotes, literally or figuratively, the point or part equidistant from or intermediate between extremes or limits in space or in time: the middle of a road. Center, a more precise word, is ordinarily applied to a point within circular, globular, or regular bodies, or wherever a similar exactness appears to exist: the center of the earth; it may also be used metaphorically (still suggesting the core of a sphere): center of interest. Midst usually suggests that a person or thing is closely surrounded or encompassed on all sides, esp. by that which is thick or dense: the midst of a storm.

Antonyms:
1. extreme. 7. extremity.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To middling
mid·dle   (mĭd'l)   
adj.  

  1. Equally distant from extremes or limits; central: the middle point on a line.

  2. Being at neither one extreme nor the other; intermediate.

    1. Intervening between an earlier and a later period of time; being an intermediate part of a sequence or series: the middle years.

    2. Middle Geology Of or relating to a division of geologic time between an earlier and a later division: the Middle Paleozoic.

  4. Middle Of or relating to a stage in the development of a language or literature between earlier and later stages: Middle Swedish.

  5. Grammar Of, relating to, or being a verb form or voice in which the subject both performs and is affected by the action specified.

n.  

  1. An area or a point equidistant between extremes; a center: the middle of a circle.

  2. Something intermediate between extremes; a mean.

  3. The interior portion: the middle of a chain.

  4. The middle part of the human body; the waist.

  5. Logic A middle term.

  6. Grammar

    1. The middle voice.

    2. A verb form in the middle voice.

tr.v.   mid·dled, mid·dling, mid·dles

  1. To place in the middle.

  2. Nautical To fold in the middle: middle the sail.


[Middle English middel, from Old English; see medhyo- in Indo-European roots.]
mid·dling   (mĭd'lĭng, -lĭn)   
adj.  

  1. Of medium size, position, or quality.

  2. Mediocre. See Synonyms at average.

n.  

  1. Chiefly Southern U.S.

    1. Pork or bacon cut from between the ham and shoulder of a pig. Often used in the plural.

    2. Salt pork. Also called middling meat.

  2. middlings Any of various products, such as partially refined petroleum or ore, that are intermediate in quality, size, price, or grade.

  3. middlings (used with a sing. or pl. verb) Coarsely ground wheat mixed with bran.

adv.   Informal
Fairly; moderately: "a middling nice cake" (Hatfield MA Valley Advocate).

[Probably Middle English midlin : mid, mid; see mid1 + -ling, having a quality; see -ling1.]
mid'dling·ly adv.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

middle 
O.E. middel, from W.Gmc. *middila (cf. M.L.G., Du. middel), from P.Gmc. *medjaz (see mid). Middle age "period between youth and old age" is attested from 1377; middle aged first recorded 1608. Middle Ages "period between ancient and modern times" (formerly roughly 500-1500 C.E., now more usually 1000-1500) is from 1616, translating L. medium ævum (cf. Ger. mittelalter, Fr. moyen âge). First record of middle class is from 1766; as an adj., "characteristic of the middle class" (depreciative) it dates from 1893. Middle name first attested 1835, Amer.Eng. Middlebrow first recorded 1925. Middleman in the trading sense is from 1795; middle management is 1957. Middle-of-the-road in the fig. sense is attested from 1894; in old times, edges of the dirt road could be washed out and thus less safe.

middling  (adj.)
1456, from Scottish mydlyn, from M.E. middle + suffix -ing. Used to designate the second of three grades of goods.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Idioms & Phrases

middling

see fair to middling.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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