middling
[ mid-ling ]
/ ˈmɪd lɪŋ /
Save This Word!
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.
QUIZZES
QUIZ YOURSELF ON “ITS” VS. “IT’S”!
Apostrophes can be tricky; prove you know the difference between it’s and its in this crafty quiz!
Question 1 of 12
On the farm, the feed for chicks is significantly different from the roosters’; ______ not even comparable.
Origin of middling
OTHER WORDS FROM middling
mid·dling·ly, adverbWords 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. 2021
Example sentences from the Web for middling
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, adverbWord 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
Idioms and Phrases with middling
middling
see fair to middling.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.