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Midlands

[mid-luh ndz]
|

plural noun

the central part of England; the midland counties.

midland

[mid-luh nd]

noun

the middle or interior part of a country.
(initial capital letter) the dialect of English spoken in the central part of England.
(initial capital letter) the dialect of English spoken in the southern parts of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, and in West Virginia, Kentucky, and eastern Tennessee, and throughout the southern Appalachians.

adjective

in or of the midland; inland.
(initial capital letter) of or relating to Midland.

Origin of midland

1400–50; late Middle English. See mid-, land

Midland

[mid-luh nd]

noun

a city in W Texas.
a city in central Michigan.
a town in S Ontario, in S Canada, on Georgian Bay of Lake Huron.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for midlands

Historical Examples of midlands

  • You have, sire, as I have heard, many friends at Bristol and in the Midlands.

    Micah Clarke

    Arthur Conan Doyle

  • As for him, he changed his parish and runs one somewhere in the Midlands.

    The Patrician

    John Galsworthy

  • We may be, for our branch of the family comes from the Midlands.

    Actions and Reactions

    Rudyard Kipling

  • Some little village in the Midlands probably, where Hamlet would be appreciated.

    Roger Ingleton, Minor

    Talbot Baines Reed

  • He come after me and followed me up all through the Midlands.

    Glyn Severn's Schooldays

    George Manville Fenn

British Dictionary definitions for midlands

Midlands

noun

the Midlands (functioning as plural or singular) the central counties of England, including Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, the former West Midlands metropolitan county, and Worcestershire: characterized by manufacturing industries

midland

noun

  1. the central or inland part of a country
  2. (as modifier)a midland region
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 midlands

midland

adj.

early 15c., mydlonde; mid + land (n.). As a noun from 1550s, first of the Midlands of England.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper