middling

[ mid-ling ]

/ ˈmɪd lɪŋ /

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See synonyms for middling on Thesaurus.com

adjective

medium, moderate, or average in size, quantity, or quality: The returns on such a large investment may be only middling.

mediocre; ordinary; commonplace; pedestrian: The restaurant's entrées are no better than middling.

Older Use. in fairly good health.

adverb

moderately; fairly.

noun

middlings, any of various products or commodities of intermediate quality, grade, size, etc., as the coarser particles of ground wheat mingled with bran.

Often middlings .Also called middling meat .Chiefly Midland and Southern U.S. salt pork or smoked side meat.

QUIZ

THINGAMABOB OR THINGUMMY: CAN YOU DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE US AND UK TERMS IN THIS QUIZ?

Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.

Question 1 of 7

In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

candystring

candyfloss

candypuff

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of middling

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English (north) medlinge (present participle) “coming between, middle”; see also mid¹, -ling²

OTHER WORDS FROM middling

mid·dling·ly, adverb

Words nearby middling

Middle Western, Middle Westerner, middle white, middle years, middle youth, middling, middlings, Middx, middy, middy blouse, Mideast

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use middling in a sentence

You could have schools with very middling results that are serving very disadvantaged kids and really contributing quite a lot to their education.
A New Window Into How San Diego Schools Are Performing|Will Huntsberry|July 28, 2021|Voice of San Diego
I could ride a shortboard, get the occasional good wave, and stay out of the way of better surfers, but I had always been middling at best.
My Quest to Surf Every Coastal State|eriley|July 28, 2021|Outside Online
The Clippers had little fan support, and they oscillated between being league bottom-dwellers and a middling franchise.
The Billionaire Playbook: How Sports Owners Use Their Teams to Avoid Millions in Taxes|by Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott and Ellis Simani|July 8, 2021|ProPublica
When a once-celebrated author winds up teaching in a middling MFA program, he’s sure he’s squandered his chance at lasting success — until one of his promising pupils dies, inspiring the novelist to claim the student’s book idea as his own.
20 books to read this summer|Washington Post Editors and Reviewers|May 27, 2021|Washington Post

Murphy had middling approval ratings before the pandemic, with one in five voters holding no opinion of how he was doing.
The Trailer: California Republicans lose the bear – and some momentum for the Gavin Newsom recall election|David Weigel|May 6, 2021|Washington Post
He was living under the alias Alonso Rivera Muñoz as a middling real estate developer and art collector in Querétaro.
Trading Dime Bags for Salvador Dali|Jason McGahan|October 19, 2014|DAILY BEAST
After a few middling seasons from the revered hometown team, a few of the neighbors raised their eyebrows in surprise at the news.
Dallas: A Journal of the Plague City|Pete Freedman|October 17, 2014|DAILY BEAST
What if he had tried to come back, only to play a couple middling seasons and then grudgingly retire or, worse, become a backup?
The Injuries That Made Peyton Manning and Tom Brady|Ben Teitelbaum|January 19, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Unlike hoity-toity displays of pedigree fluff, the Average Joe Cat Show is a celebration of middling felines.
The Cat's Meow: Top 10 Destinations for Feline Fanatics|Lonely Planet|December 20, 2013|DAILY BEAST
This is a middling jobs report for the middle of the business cycle.
The Slow, Grinding Repair of the American Labor Market|Megan McArdle|May 3, 2013|DAILY BEAST
I presume there will be more middling and half middling yields within twenty miles of Paris than in all Belgium.
Glances at Europe|Horace Greeley
Nothing keeps longer than a middling fortune, and nothing melts away sooner than a large one.
The 'Characters' of Jean de La Bruyre|Jean de La Bruyre
She worked me middling hard for about an hour, and then the widow made her ease up.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Complete|Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
The head is conical, and of a middling size, with respect to the bulk of the body.
Buffon's Natural History. Volume IX (of 10)|Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon
Little did he think that that middling oat-bearing land was being minded and brooded upon.
Mushroom Town|Oliver Onions

British Dictionary definitions for middling

middling

/ (ˈmɪdlɪŋ) /

adjective

mediocre in quality, size, etc; neither good nor bad, esp in health (often in the phrase fair to middling)

adverb

informal moderatelymiddling well

Derived forms of middling

middlingly, adverb

Word Origin for middling

C15 (northern English and Scottish): from mid 1 + -ling ²

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

Other Idioms and Phrases with middling

middling

see fair to middling.

middling

Origin of middling

OTHER WORDS FROM middling

Words nearby middling

Words related to middling

How to use middling in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for middling

Derived forms of middling

Word Origin for middling

Other Idioms and Phrases with middling