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middle distance

See more synonyms for middle distance on Thesaurus.com
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