middle distance

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noun

Also called middle ground, middle plane. Fine Arts. the represented space between the foreground and background in paintings, drawings, etc.

(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

Words nearby middle distance

Middle Comedy, middle common room, Middle Congo, middle constrictor muscle of pharynx, middle cuneiform bone, middle distance, Middle Dutch, middle ear, Middle East, Middle Eastern, middle eight

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use middle distance in a sentence

Aleeya Hutchins, a middle distance track runner at Wake Forest, doesn’t have any combat sports experience.
'I'd Love to Throw a Chair at Somebody.' College Athlete TikTok Stars Are Signing on With WWE|Sean Gregory|December 20, 2021|Time
Springsteen was famous for refusing to cave to advertisers across his 48-year career, but now here he is on our Super Bowl screens, squinting into the middle distance like a parody of himself.
If Bruce Springsteen’s Jeep commercial doesn’t bum you out, congrats on the purchase of your new Jeep|Chris Richards|February 7, 2021|Washington Post
According to Pew, 14 of the 20 countries in the Middle East and North Africa have blasphemy laws.
In Defense of Blasphemy|Michael Tomasky|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
In the middle of all of that past suffering and present-day conflict, this Cosby bomb was dropped.
Phylicia Rashad and the Cult of Cosby Truthers|Stereo Williams|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST

And, especially when it comes to the middle, personality counts.
Why This Liberal Hearts Huckabee|Sally Kohn|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The same picture emerges from middle class men in the U.S., Canada, and the Nordic countries.
How Good Dads Can Change the World|Gary Barker, PhD, Michael Kaufman|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Their leader, Njie, still going by “Dave” during the operation, would stay a safe distance away until the State House was secure.
The Shadowy U.S. Veteran Who Tried to Overthrow a Country|Jacob Siegel|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
She looked so sweet when she said it, standing and smiling there in the middle of the floor, the door-way making a frame for her.
Music-Study in Germany|Amy Fay
Suddenly, however, he became aware of a small black spot far ahead in the very middle of the unencumbered track.
The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol|William J. Locke
The Seven-score and four on the six middle Bells, the treble leading, and the tenor lying behind every change, makes good Musick.
Tintinnalogia, or, the Art of Ringing|Richard Duckworth and Fabian Stedman
Off went the officers again, some distance to the front, and then back again to their men, and got them on a little further.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV.|Various
Distance, the uncertain light, and imagination, magnified it to a high wall; high as the wall of China.
The Giant of the North|R.M. Ballantyne

British Dictionary definitions for middle distance

middle-distance

adjective

athletics relating to or denoting races of a length between the sprints and the distance events, esp the 800 metres and the 1500 metres

noun middle distance

Also called: middle ground part of a painting, esp a landscape between the foreground and far distance

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