middlebrow
[mid-l-brou]
- a person of conventional tastes and interests in matters of culture; a moderately cultivated person.
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Origin of middlebrow
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for middlebrow
Contemporary Examples
Salinger retooled it, retitled it "Paula," and sold it to Stag, a middlebrow publication for men.
Or does middlebrow entertainment become appealing only when it has aged into a minority taste?
In the book, his scope includes both the high- and middlebrow.
The absurdly successful Gwyn Barry is a hilarious take on middlebrow, narcissistic celebrity authors.
I'm not lauching into a middlebrow sermon here about our violence-drenched culture.
middlebrow
- a person with conventional tastes and limited cultural appreciation
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- of or appealing to middlebrowsmiddlebrow culture
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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
Word Origin and History for middlebrow
1911 (adj.), 1912 (n.), from middle + brow (cf. highbrow, lowbrow).
[T]here is an alarmingly wide chasm, I might almost say a vacuum, between the high-brow, who considers reading either as a trade or as a form of intellectual wrestling, and the low-brow, who is merely seeking for gross thrills. It is to be hoped that culture will soon be democratized through some less conventional system of education, giving rise to a new type that might be called the middle-brow, who will consider books as a source of intellectual enjoyment. ["The Nation," Jan, 25, 1912]
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper