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middle distance

noun
  1. Also called middle ground, middle plane. Fine Arts. the represented space between the foreground and background in paintings, drawings, etc.
  2. (in track) a race distance ranging from 400 meters or 440 yards to 1 mile.
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Origin of middle distance

First recorded in 1805–15
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for middle-distance

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • These figures must be in the foreground, and the rest in the middle-distance or in the back-ground.

    The Author's Craft

    Arnold Bennett

  • We need a middle-distance man and some one who knows something about pole vaulting.

    For the Honor of the School

    Ralph Henry Barbour

  • When Peets lets drive something about 'sky effects,' an' 'fore-grounds,' an' 'middle-distance,' we stacks in all sim'lar.

    Faro Nell and Her Friends

    Alfred Henry Lewis

  • In the middle-distance, Mrs. Payson was approaching with a cup of nourishing beef-tea.

    Stanford Stories

    Charles K. Field

British Dictionary definitions for middle-distance

middle-distance

adjective
  1. athletics relating to or denoting races of a length between the sprints and the distance events, esp the 800 metres and the 1500 metres
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noun middle distance
  1. Also called: middle ground part of a painting, esp a landscape between the foreground and far distance
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012