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definitions

middling

[mid-ling]
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adjective
  1. medium, moderate, oraverage in size, quantity, or quality: The returns on such a large investment may be only middling.
  2. mediocre; ordinary; commonplace; pedestrian: The restaurant's entrées are no better than middling.
  3. Older Use. in fairly good health.
adverb
  1. moderately; fairly.
noun
  1. middlings, any of various products or commodities of intermediate quality, grade, size, etc., as the coarser particles of ground wheat mingled with bran.
  2. Often middlings. Also called middling meat. Chiefly Midland and Southern U.S. salt pork or smoked side meat.

Origin of middling

1375–1425; late Middle English (north). See mid1, -ling2
Related formsmid·dling·ly, adverb

middle

[mid-l]
adjective
  1. equally distant from the extremes or outer limits; central: the middle point of a line; the middle singer in a trio.
  2. intermediate or intervening: the middle distance.
  3. medium or average: a man of middle size.
  4. (initial capital letter) (in the history of a language) intermediate between periods classified as Old and New or Modern: Middle English.
  5. Grammar. (in some languages) noting a voice of verb inflection in which the subject is represented as acting on or for itself, in contrast to the active voice in which the subject acts, and the passive voice in which the subject is acted upon, as in Greek, egrapsámēn “I wrote for myself,” égrapsa “I wrote,” egráphēn “I was written.”
  6. (often initial capital letter) Stratigraphy. noting the division intermediate between the upper and lower divisions of a period, system, or the like: the Middle Devonian.
noun
  1. the point, part, position, etc., equidistant from extremes or limits.
  2. the central part of the human body, especially the waist: He gave him a punch in the middle.
  3. something intermediate; mean.
  4. (in farming) the ground between two rows of plants.
verb (used with or without object), mid·dled, mid·dling.
  1. Chiefly Nautical. to fold in half.

Origin of middle

before 900; Middle English, Old English middel; cognate with German mittel; akin to Old Norse methal among. See mid1

Synonyms for middle

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1. equidistant, halfway, medial, midway. 7. midpoint. Middle, center, midst indicate something from which two or more other things are (approximately or exactly) equally distant. Middle denotes, literally or figuratively, the point or part equidistant from or intermediate between extremes or limits in space or in time: the middle of a road. Center, a more precise word, is ordinarily applied to a point within circular, globular, or regular bodies, or wherever a similar exactness appears to exist: the center of the earth; it may also be used metaphorically (still suggesting the core of a sphere): center of interest. Midst usually suggests that a person or thing is closely surrounded or encompassed on all sides, especially by that which is thick or dense: the midst of a storm.

Antonyms for middle

1. extreme. 7. extremity.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for middling

so-so, mediocre, passable, run-of-the-mill, medium, okay, fair, average, good, common, intermediate, ordinary, moderate, mean, conventional, decent, indifferent, modest, tolerable, traditional

Examples from the Web for middling

Contemporary Examples of middling

Historical Examples of middling

British Dictionary definitions for middling

middling

adjective
  1. mediocre in quality, size, etc; neither good nor bad, esp in health (often in the phrase fair to middling)
adverb
  1. informal moderatelymiddling well
Derived Formsmiddlingly, adverb

Word Origin for middling

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

middle

adjective
  1. equally distant from the ends or periphery of something; central
  2. intermediate in status, situation, etc
  3. located between the early and late parts of a series, time sequence, etc
  4. not extreme, esp in size; medium
  5. (esp in Greek and Sanskrit grammar) denoting a voice of verbs expressing reciprocal or reflexive actionCompare active (def. 5), passive (def. 5)
  6. (usually capital) (of a language) intermediate between the earliest and the modern formsMiddle English
noun
  1. an area or point equal in distance from the ends or periphery or in time between the early and late parts
  2. an intermediate part or section, such as the waist
  3. grammar the middle voice
  4. logic See middle term
  5. the ground between rows of growing plants
  6. a discursive article in a journal, placed between the leading articles and the book reviews
  7. cricket a position on the batting creases in alignment with the middle stumps on which a batsman may take guard
verb (tr)
  1. to place in the middle
  2. nautical to fold in two
  3. football to return (the ball) from the wing to midfield
  4. cricket to hit (the ball) with the middle of the bat

Word Origin for middle

Old English middel; compare Old Frisian middel, Dutch middel, German mittel
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 middling
adj.

1540s, from Scottish mydlyn (mid-15c.), from middle + suffix -ing. Used to designate the second of three grades of goods. As an adverb by 1719.

middle

adj.

Old English middel, from West Germanic *middila (cf. Old Frisian middel, Old Saxon middil, Middle Low German, Dutch middel, Old High German mittil, German mittel), from Proto-Germanic *medjaz (see mid). Middle name attested from 1815; as "one's outstanding characteristic," colloquial, from 1911, American English.

According to Mr. H.A. Hamilton, in his "Quarter Sessions from Queen Elizabeth," the practice of giving children two Christian names was unknown in England before the period of the Stuarts, was rarely adopted down to the time of the Revolution, and never became common until after the Hanoverian family was seated on the throne. "In looking through so many volumes of county records," he says, "I have, of course, seen many thousands and tens of thousands of proper names, belonging to men of all ranks and degrees,--to noblemen, justices, jurymen, witnesses, sureties, innkeepers, hawkers, paupers, vagrants, criminals, and others,--and in no single instance, down to the end of the reign of Anne, have I noticed any person bearing more than one Christian name ...." [Walsh]

Middle school attested from 1838, originally "middle-class school, school for middle-class children;" the sense in reference to a school for grades between elementary and high school is from 1960. Middle management is 1957. Middle-of-the-road in the figurative sense is attested from 1894; edges of a dirt road can be washed out and thus less safe. Middle finger so called from c.1000.

middle

n.

Old English middel, from middle (adj.).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with middling

middling

see fair to middling.

middle

see caught in the middle; in the middle of; play both ends against the middle.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.