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单词 middle
释义

middleadj.n.

Brit. /ˈmɪdl/, U.S. /ˈmɪd(ə)l/
Forms: Old English (rare)–1500s middil, Old English–1500s midel, Old English (rare)–1500s myddel, Old English–1500s 1800s middel (U.S.), Middle English meddel, Middle English meddell, Middle English meddyll, Middle English medel, Middle English medelle, Middle English medil, Middle English medill, Middle English medille, Middle English medle, Middle English medull, Middle English medulle, Middle English medylle, Middle English middul, Middle English middull, Middle English middylle, Middle English midil, Middle English midill, Middle English midyl, Middle English midyll, Middle English myddil, Middle English myddille, Middle English myddul, Middle English mydil, Middle English mydill, Middle English mydul, Middle English mydyl, Middle English mydyll, Middle English mydylle, Middle English–1500s medyl, Middle English–1500s medyll, Middle English–1500s middille, Middle English–1500s myddell, Middle English–1500s myddelle, Middle English–1500s myddill, Middle English–1500s myddle, Middle English–1500s myddyl, Middle English–1500s myddyll, Middle English–1500s myddylle, Middle English–1500s mydel, Middle English–1500s mydell, Middle English–1500s mydle, Middle English–1600s middell, Middle English–1700s midle, Middle English– middle, 1500s meddle, 1500s medell, 1500s mydille, 1500s–1600s midell; Scottish pre-1700 meddill, pre-1700 medil, pre-1700 medill, pre-1700 medle, pre-1700 medyll, pre-1700 meidle, pre-1700 middel, pre-1700 middell, pre-1700 middill, pre-1700 midel, pre-1700 midell, pre-1700 midil, pre-1700 midile, pre-1700 midill, pre-1700 midl, pre-1700 myddil, pre-1700 myddill, pre-1700 myddle, pre-1700 myddyll, pre-1700 mydel, pre-1700 mydele, pre-1700 mydell, pre-1700 mydil, pre-1700 mydle, pre-1700 mydyl, pre-1700 1700s midle, pre-1700 1700s– middle, pre-1700 1800s middil; also Irish English 1700s–1800s methel, 1700s–1800s mithel. Comparative 1600s midler. Superlative Old English–Middle English midlest, Middle English meddellust, Middle English medellust, Middle English medlyste, Middle English medyllest, Middle English middelest, Middle English midelest, Middle English midelst, Middle English midleste, Middle English midliste, Middle English myddelest, Middle English myddeleste, Middle English myddlest, Middle English mydelest, Middle English mydleste, Middle English mydlyst, 1500s mydlest, 1800s middleist (English regional (Yorkshire)); Scottish pre-1700 midilest, pre-1700 myddillest, pre-1700 mydlast, pre-1700 mydlest.
Origin: A word inherited from Germanic.
Etymology: Cognate with Old Frisian middel , adjective (West Frisian middel , noun and in compounds), Middle Dutch middel , adjective and noun (Dutch middel noun and in compounds), Old Saxon middil , noun, middil- , in compounds (Middle Low German middel , adjective and noun), Old High German mittil , adjective (Middle High German mittel , adjective and noun, German mittel , adjective, Mittel , noun), Old Icelandic *miðill , noun (in phrase (á) miðli between, later (á) milli , also (á) millum ), Old Swedish midhel , noun, midhil- , in compounds < the Germanic base of mid adj. with diminutive suffix (compare -le suffix 1); compare from the same base, but without -j- and with full-grade suffix, Old High German metal , adjective, Old Icelandic meðal , noun (in phrase á meðal between), meðal- , in compounds, Old Swedish medhel , noun, medhel- , in compounds (Swedish medel , noun and adjective), also in phrases (i) mälle , (i) mällom between (Swedish mellan ), Old Danish medel , noun (also in phrases (i) mellæ , (i) mellom between (Danish mellem )); compare amell prep. and adv.The position of the stress in compounds with middle- as first element varies in accordance with the general stress patterns of English. Contrastive stress may also give rise contextually to primary stress on the first syllable in compounds where the stress ordinarily falls elsewhere.
A. adj. (not in predicative use). [In Old English and Middle English, other than in compounds, chiefly found in the superlative; the present use of the positive partly descends from compounds, in which middel- may be equally well taken as adjective or as noun (see examples at relevant senses below). The superlative does not continue in standard use later than the mid 16th cent. (but compare regional use in quot. 1862 at sense A. 1a). The comparative, which is the prevailing form in German (mittlerer ), has never been current in English (for an isolated example see quot. a1682 at sense A. 2a(a)).]
1.
a. Designating that member of a group or series, or that part of a whole, so situated as to have the same number of members or parts on each side of it: said with reference to position in space, time, order of succession or enumeration, or the like. Sometimes modifying a plural noun. [For the use of middel- in this sense in Old English compounds, compare:
eOE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Parker) anno 887 Þa wearþ þæt rice todæled on v & v kyningas to gehalgode... Roþulf þa feng to þæm middelrice.
eOE Cleopatra Gloss. in W. G. Stryker Lat.-Old Eng. Gloss. in MS Cotton Cleopatra A.III (Ph.D. diss., Stanford Univ.) (1951) 309 Medius, middelfinger.
eOE Bald's Leechbk. (Royal) (1865) ii. xxii. 210 Þonne sceal him mon..blod lætan of þam swiðran earme on þære niþerran ædre. Gif þa mon ne mæge eaþe geredian þonne sceal mon on þære middel ædre blod lætan.
]
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > central condition or position > [adjective] > situated in the centre or middle
mideOE
middleeOE
mean1340
midwarda1400
moyen1481
centrica1593
midway1608
centricala1631
umbilical1742
middling1747
median1771
focal1825
the world > relative properties > order > order, sequence, or succession > middle > [adjective]
middleeOE
midmosteOE
mid1273
mean1340
middlemosta1400
mediate?1440
moyen1481
median1592
intermedial1599
intermediate1648
mede1706
intermediary1788
the world > space > relative position > central condition or position > [adjective] > situated in the centre or middle > middle of
mideOE
middleeOE
midwardeOE
half-way1694
midmost1807
eOE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Tanner) iv. xxiv. 334 Þa wæron þus hatne & nemde, Bosa, Ætla, Oftfor, Iohannes & Wilfrið...Bi þæm midlestan is nu to secgenne [etc.].
eOE Laws of Ælfred (Corpus Cambr. 173) lviii. 82 Gif se midlesta finger sie ofaslegen, sio bot bið XII scill.
c1230 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Corpus Cambr.) (1962) 189 & te meidnes eoden furðre to þe midleste [a1250 Titus midliste].
c1300 St. Michael (Laud) 313 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 308 (MED) Ech of is fingres hath is name..‘Longueman’ hatte þe midleste, for he lenguest is.
a1425 (c1385) G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (1987) iii. 666 In this myddel chaumbre..Shul youre wommen slepen.
c1450 Med. Recipes (BL Add. 33996) in F. Heinrich Mittelengl. Medizinbuch (1896) 77 Do awey þe ouerest rynde, and take þe meddellust.
1494 W. Hilton Scale of Perfection (de Worde) i. lxxxii I telle the of the myddelest of hym that boughte the oxen.
1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry iii. f. 145v Shutte them vp the foure middle houres of the day.
1600 B. Jonson Every Man out of his Humor iii. i. sig. Hiiv The middle Isle in Paules. View more context for this quotation
1609 Acts Parl. Scotl. (1816) IV. 436 The mydele schyres of this ile heirto~foir callit the bordouris.
1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) at Base In Heraldry, the lowest part of an Escutcheon, consisting of the Dexter, Middle and Sinister Base-points.
1769 O. Goldsmith Rom. Hist. II. 324 He was at that middle time of life which is happily tempered with the warmth of youth.
1834 S. Cooper Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 515 The three arterial coats are now generally called external, middle and internal.
1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. xi. 70 The middle portion of the glacier.
1862 C. C. Robinson Dial. Leeds & Neighbourhood 358 Middleist, middlemost.
1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VII. 284 Occupying the middle third, or rather middle two-fourths of the central convolutions.
1915 T. S. Eliot Let. 27 Sept. (1988) I. 118 I have found the two upper classes quite good at French, the middle boys indifferent at history; and the small boys capable of being interested.
1933 A. Christie Lord Edgware Dies v. 52 He had reached out for the daily paper..folded it back at the middle page.
1958 P. G. Wodehouse Let. 3 June (1990) VI. 160 I took out the middle part of the short story.
1991 R. Oliver Afr. Experience (1993) xiii. 169 Islam was spreading in a more superficial way across the middle belt and into the southern part of West Africa.
b. Designating the second in age of three siblings. Similarly (colloquial) middle one. In Middle English also in superlative.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > kinsman or relation > child > relationship to parent > [adjective] > next-born, last-born, etc.
middlec1275
youngest-borna1325
next-born?a1400
last-born1609
c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) 2116 Cambert hehte þe oðer þat wes þe midleste broðer.
c1300 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Otho) 12909 After him was an oþer Þat was þe middel broþer.
c1330 (?a1300) Arthour & Merlin (Auch.) (1973) 770 (MED) Þe midel soster a gile fond.
a1425 (?a1350) Seege Troye (Linc. Inn) (1927) 458 Þenne com forþ alisaunder Parys Þe Kyngis medlyste sone of prys.
c1447 in F. M. Nichols Lawford Hall (1891) App. 22 John Baddele wedded Agnes the middell daughter of Thomas Cokefeld.
?1530 St. German's Dyaloge Doctoure & Student vii. f. xv If there be thre bretherne and the mydlest brother purchase landes [etc.].
1612 N. Field Woman a Weather-cocke i. i I was Knighted a purpose to come a wooing to Mistris Lucida, the middle Sister, Sir Iohn Worldlyes second daughter.
1688 J. Barker Poet. Recreations (title of poem) The middle sister, ascribed to Clarinda.
1758 J. Dalrymple Ess. Hist. Feudal Prop. (ed. 2) v. 176 A middle brother dying without children, and leaving an elder and younger brother alive.
1818 W. Cruise Digest Laws Eng. Real Prop. (ed. 2) II. 522 She should have a writ of partition at common law, against the middle sister.
1891 Catholic World Mar. 831 The good judge's wife was not quite satisfied with this ‘boy's education’ for her middle daughter.
1901 H. V. Esmond Wilderness iii. 56 I was a parson's daughter—the middle one of nine.
1929 Punch 11 Oct. 410/3 My middle sister, Emily, announced one evening that she dreamt three nights running that her name was Brown.
1976 Jrnl. Royal Soc. Arts Apr. 238/2 It is the ‘middle child’ that gives the important information.
1990 Good Housek. (U.K. ed.) May 111/2 I graduated at St David's Hall..with my parents, my husband and my middle one in attendance.
c. Of a point, line, area, or volume (†formerly sometimes of a concrete object): equidistant from the ends or boundaries of a thing; situated at the centre, central.
ΚΠ
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) (1980) i. i. 9 Asia ongen ðæm middeldæle on þæm eastende, þær ligeð se muþa..þære ie þe mon hateð Gandis.
lOE Grant of Land, Somerset (Sawyer 1819) in Proc. Somerset Archaeol. & Nat. Hist. Soc. (1953) 98 121 Swa on middel del þære dune.]
?a1425 (c1400) Mandeville's Trav. (Titus C.xvi) (1919) Prol. 2 He wil make it to ben cryed & pronounced in the myddel place of a town.
1586 J. Ferne Blazon of Gentrie 212 The middle point of the shield.
1594 H. Plat Jewell House 24 Fasten this bar ouerthwartwise in the middle point of the ouen mouth.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 1 (1623) ii. ii. 6 The middle Centure of this cursed Towne. View more context for this quotation
a1674 T. Traherne Præface in Poet. Wks. (1932) 92 While they wonder at His Rings, his precious Stones,..The middle piece, his Body and his Mind, They over-look.
1726 G. Leoni tr. L. B. Alberti Architecture I. 9/2 The..Line..from the middle Point of the Chord up to the Arch.
1821 W. M. Craig Lect. Drawing 351 In the same way you will get the middle line of the mouth.
1899 J. H. Grace & F. Rosenberg Coordinate Geom. iv. 50 Find the length of the ordinates of each of the curves in Ex. 3 corresponding to the middle points of the semi-major axis.
1990 Mountain July 20/3 Most of this ammunition funnelled into a couloir at the bottom of the middle part of the face.
†d. Average, mean. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > relationship > equality or equivalence > condition of being mean or average > [adjective]
evenc1300
mean1340
middlingc1485
intermediate1665
half-way1694
middle1699
medium1764
average1770
median1912
middle-range1924
the world > relative properties > relationship > equality or equivalence > condition of being mean or average > [adjective] > average
meana1387
medium1670
middle1699
middling1762
medial1778
average1803
regular1890
1699 R. Bentley Diss. Epist. Phalaris (new ed.) 84 We examin the Platonic, or Stoic, or Epicurean Successions; and compute by a middle rate.
1788 J. Priestley Lect. Hist. ii. x. 86 The seventeen intervals by the father's side, and the eighteen by the mother's at a middle reckoning amount to about 507 years.
1790 E. Burke Refl. Revol. in France 191 The middle term for the rest of France is about 900 inhabitants to the same admeasurement. View more context for this quotation
2. Intermediate, intervening.
a.
(a) Of size, stature, rank, or quality: intermediate between two extremes, medium. Of a course of action, an opinion, etc.: mediating. Hence of a person (rare): †that takes a middle course, compromising (obsolete).The form midlest in quot. eOE occurs in a passage where the normal word used is midmest (cf. quot. eOE1 at midmost adj. 1).
ΚΠ
eOE King Ælfred tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (Otho) xxxix. 129 Swa bið þæm midlestan monnum; oðre hwile he smeað on his mode ymb þis eorðlice [lif], oðre hwile ymb ðæt godcundlice.
1340 Ayenbite (1866) 122 Ine heuene heþ þri stages of uolke..þe þridde byeþ ine þe middel stat, þet gouerneþ wel.
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 14v Among þese holy ordres [of aungels] somme beþ þe firste, and somme þe middel, and somme þe laste and lowest.
1442 Rolls of Parl. V. 61/1 Beddes of the middell assise.
c1450 (c1375) G. Chaucer Anelida & Arcite 79 Yong was this quene of twenty yer of elde, Of mydel stature.
c1540 (?a1400) Gest Historiale Destr. Troy 3751 A medull size, Betwene the large & the litill.
?1542 H. Brinkelow Complaynt Roderyck Mors xxii. sig. F3v That the pore & myddel sort of the peple may be easyd therby.
1632 J. Florio tr. M. de Montaigne Ess. (ed. 3) ii. xvi. 353 I haue, in my daies, seene a thousand middle, mungrell and ambiguous men..loase themselves, where I haue saved my selfe.
a1682 Sir T. Browne Certain Misc. Tracts (1683) v. 119 The first produceth a Female and large Hawk, the second of a midler sort, and the third a smaller Bird Tercellene.
a1716 R. South 12 Serm. (1717) V. 459 And therefore Men of a middle Condition are indeed doubly happy.
1775 E. Burke Speech Amer. Taxation 37 An Administration, that, having no scheme of their own, took a middle line.
1782 J. Priestley Hist. Corruptions Christianity I. i. 145 A middle opinion has been adopted by some Arians.
1826 W. Scott Woodstock I. i. 11 He was a stout man of middle stature.
1858 T. D. Acland Oxf. A.A. Exam. 3 The want of better education, accessible to the middle ranks on easy terms.
1902 A. E. W. Mason Four Feathers xiv. 135 He was a man of the middle size.
1983 A. Bullock Ernest Bevin xvi. 639 Bevin could only say he was trying to steer a middle course.
(b) Of a colour: = mid adj. 2b(b).See also middle tint n. at Compounds 1a.
ΚΠ
1525 in Visit. Southwell (1891) 124 A gowne of myddle coloure.
1769 E. Burke Observ. Late State Nation 91 There are a sort of middle tints and shades between the two extremes.
1869 Bradshaw's Railway Man. 21 460 (advt.) Brunswick Green dark middle, and pale.
1926–7 Army & Navy Stores Catal. 299/1 Washable water paint... Colours..Light Stone—Middle Stone—Dark Stone.
1950 J. Cannan Murder Included vii. 158 A wool frock of a dull middle-blue.
b. With general reference to position in space, time, or order. Also of a person: intermediary (now rare); cf. middleman n. 7a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > [adjective] > intervening
middlea1200
meana1382
interloping1603
interim1604
intercurrent1611
odd1618
intermediate1623
intervenient1629
intermedian1656
interveninga1781
interstitial1841
the world > space > relative position > condition or fact of being interjacent > [adjective]
middlea1200
mean1340
mediate?1440
intercedent1578
interjacent1594
intermedial1599
intermiddle1613
intervenient1626
intervalling1632
intermediate1646
intervening1646
mediatory1650
intercurrent1656
intermedious1678
intermediant1716
intercepting1826
mediant1853
intermediary1875
interferent1876
a1200 MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 169 Warð blisfuller his [sc. Job's] ende þene was his biginninge, and on þe midleste biwist, þe he þolede þe gimere pine.
c1225 (?c1200) Sawles Warde (Bodl.) (1938) 22 (MED) Mi þridde suster..spekeð of þe middel sti bituhhe riht & luft.
?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1872) IV. 263 The myddelle nyȝhte betwene the Seturday and the Sonday.
1599 J. Davies Nosce Teipsum 59 Will, seeking good, finds many middle ends.
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. xvi. xxxix. 488 The trees would bee cut downe that are of a middle age,..neither young poles nor old runts.
1616 H. Spelman De non temerandis Ecclesiis (ed. 2) App. 194 Thus the eldest and newest expositors are wholly for mee, many also (& of the best of them) of the middle ages, none that I know against me.
1718 N. Rowe tr. Lucan Pharsalia vi. 569 The middle Space, a Valley low depress'd.
1757 S. Foote Author i. 12 I wonder what makes your Poets have such an Aversion to middle Floors—they are always to be found in the Extremities; in Garrets, or Cellars.
1776 A. Smith Inq. Wealth of Nations II. v. ii. 522 All the middle buyers, who intervened between either of them and the consumer. View more context for this quotation
1843 J. S. Mill Syst. Logic II. vi. v. 524 The principles of Ethology are properly the middle principles, the axiomata media (as Bacon would have said) of the science of mind.
1894 Overland Monthly June 700/1 (advt.) Stock the finest; prices the lowest. Direct dealing; no middle profits.
1941 S. L. Polyak Retina xv. 196 The extra-areal periphery, composed of..near periphery,..middle periphery,..far periphery, and..extreme periphery.
1988 J. Trefil Dark Side of Universe i. 17 A moral universe in which man occupied a middle place, with hell beneath his feet and heaven above.
c. Middle-sized; spec. (of the voice) †moderately loud (obsolete).
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > medium or moderate size > [adjective]
middlea1425
middlingc1450
middle-sized1596
middle-size1674
middling-sized1723
middling-size1776
mid-sized1883
mid-size1967
a1425 Edward, Duke of York Master of Game (Digby) xiv It is goode þat he haue both of þe gret and of þe smale and of the mydel.
c1450 Alphabet of Tales (1904) I. 87 Þe psalm was begon in a medull voyce.
1507 in I. S. Leadam Select Cases Star Chamber (1903) I. 267 A chafing callid a mydyll dysshe could not be well sold vndre the price of xiiij d.
1599 H. Porter Pleasant Hist. Two Angrie Women of Abington sig. G2 A middle man thats the best syze indeed, I like him well.
1642 Bk. Rates 2 Balkes, great, the hundred containing 120, 12 . 00 . 00, middle..05 . 00 . 00, small..02 . 00 . 00.
1663 in J. Nicholson Minute Bk. War Comm. Covenanters Kirkcudbright (1855) 187 (note) Ane great pot, meidle pot, and ane lytle pot.
1859 Stationers' Handbk. 17 Thin post, ranging from 11 to 15 lbs.; Middle post, ranging from 16 to 18 lbs.; Thick post, comprising 19 to 23 lbs.
1950 A. W. Boyd Coward's Birds Brit. Isles (rev. ed.) 1st Ser. 390 Middle Spotted Woodpecker, Dryobates medius... Pennant's Lancashire record cannot be considered satisfactory.
1995 Guardian 21 Aug. i. 4/7 The middle-spotted woodpecker has been spotted in Britain for the first time.
†d. Of a battle: indecisive. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > armed encounter > [adjective] > relating to battles > undecided
doubtful1562
drawn1610
middle1625
dubious1635
1625 W. Yonge Diary (1848) 84 A middle fight.
3. In partitive use: the middle or central part of; = mid adj. 1a. Now rare except with place names and nouns denoting a period of time.
ΚΠ
eOE Bald's Leechbk. (Royal) (1865) i. lxxii. 146 On middeldagum inne gewunode for þon þe sio lyft biþ þonne swiþost gemenged.
OE Beowulf 2833 Nalles æfter lyfte lacende hwearf middelnihtum.]
a1200 (?OE) Bounds (Sawyer 124) in W. de G. Birch Cartularium Saxonicum (1885) I. 339 Ðanon into cealden lea, and swa eft into colonea be midelen streame.
?a1300 Vision St. Paul (Digby) 95 in Archiv f. das Studium der Neueren Sprachen (1879) 62 404/1 (MED) Some..stondeþ in to heere knee, Some to here middil þei.
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) Mark vi. 47 The boot was in the myddil see [a1425 L.V. in the myddil of the see; L in medio mari].
1569 R. Grafton Chron. II. 8 Marcarus..Erle of Northumberland, and Edwyn Erle of middle England, with Edgar Athelyng [etc.].
1600 W. Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream ii. i. 82 Neuer, since the middle Sommers spring, Met we on hill, in dale, forrest, or meade. View more context for this quotation
1632 W. Lithgow Totall Disc. Trav. ix. 402 I stepped downe to my middle thigh in the water.
1645 J. Milton On Christ's Nativity: Hymn xvii, in Poems 8 When at the worlds last session, The dreadfull Judge in middle Air shall spread his throne.
1663 S. Butler Hudibras: First Pt. i. ii. 158 So foul [the Stocks], that whoso is in, Is to the Middle-leg in prison.
1720 J. Gay Rural Sports i, 56 in Poems Several Occasions I. 6 When heifers seek the shade and cooling lake, And in the middle path-way basks the snake.
1812 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Cantos I & II ii. xxviii. 75 Calypso's isles, The sister tenants of the middle deep.
1827 J. Macculloch Malaria viii. 352 The two months of middle summer and the four of middle winter are..the freest from original attacks of..Malaria.
1860 N. Hawthorne Marble Faun II. xiv. 153 The holy cloud of incense,..which had risen into the middle dome.
1918 E. L. Masters Toward Gulf 240 All her hair Was tangled serpents; she did wear A single eye in the middle brow.
1932 W. James Big-enough vi. 95 By middle summer Billy could read and spell.
1966 J. Stevens Cox Illustr. Dict. Hairdressing & Wigmaking 114/1 Pipe, a cylindrical object of either box wood or baked clay, hollowed a little in the middle length.
1999 Independent 4 Aug. i. 11/2 Hundreds of armed police..have combed the forests of middle Germany.
4. Philology.
a. Grammar. [After Hellenistic Greek μέση διάθεσις.] Intermediate between active and passive: the designation of a voice of classical Greek verbs which often expresses action viewed as affecting the subject (esp. advantageously), reflexive or reciprocal action, or intransitive conditions. Hence designating: (a) the system of conjugation in some other Indo-European languages morphologically corresponding to the Greek middle voice; (b) verbal forms or constructions in various languages serving to express a reflexive or reciprocal sense, or otherwise resembling the use of the Greek middle voice.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > voice > [adjective] > middle
mean1530
neutral1531
middle1751
1751 J. Harris Hermes i. ix. 176 That Species of Verbs, called Verbs middle.
1804 L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 9) ii. vi. 110 Some grammarians have alleged, that..we should also admit the dual number, the paulo post future tense, the middle voice..found in Greek.
1844 Proc. Philol. Soc. 1 232 The middle verbs in the Icelandic language have been called..reciprocal instead of reflective.
1873 J. Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue (ed. 2) vi. 286 It gives to the English language a Middle Voice, or a power of verbal expression which is neither active nor passive.
1894 W. W. Goodwin Greek Gram. 90 The middle voice generally signifies that the subject performs an action upon himself or for his own benefit.., but sometimes it is not distinguished from the active voice in meaning.
1906 J. H. Moulton Gram. N.T. Greek I. 161 (note) Formal passives with middle meaning.
1946 L. Bloomfield in C. Osgood Ling. Struct. Native Amer. 108 Special formations occur in both genders and show primary rather than secondary structure. These have a less explicitly reflexive meaning; we call them middle reflexives.
1971 Archivum Linguisticum 2 103 I..think that the strongest reason for rejecting the theory of an old middle-intransitive meaning of s, specific to the subjunctive and to the past tense, is the existence of the many s presents.
1992 W. P. Lehmann in C. Blank Lang. & Civilization I. 140 Both of these dialects made a distinction between an active and a middle voice in their early stages.
b.
(a) Middle Latin n. [after post-classical Latin media Latinitas (1678, Du Cange)] medieval Latin. Similarly †Middle Latinity (obsolete).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > languages of the world > Indo-Hittite > [noun] > Indo-European > postulated Italo-Celtic > Latin > medieval or modern
modern Latin1677
Low Latin1704
Middle Latin1781
neo-Latin1850
1781 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall II. xvii. 49 From this particular instance of cowardice, murcare is used as synonymous to mutilare, by the writers of the middle Latinity.
1857 Notes & Queries 2nd Ser. 10 Oct. 282/2 Judocus Clichtovens, the very midmost, I should think, of middle Latin names.
1906 N.E.D. Middle-Latin, by some used for Mediæval Latin.
1965 D. di Prima (title) Seven love poems from the Middle Latin.
(b) [After German mittelenglisch, mittelhochdeutsch, mittelniederdeutsch, mittelniederländisch, adjectives (J. Grimm Deutsche Grammatik (1819) I.).] Modifying the name of a language: denoting a period in the history of a language (and the variety or varieties of the language used during this period) intermediate between those called Old and Modern (or New, Late, etc.), as in Middle English, Middle French, Middle High German, Middle Irish, etc.Middle Dutch, Middle Low German, Middle High German: see sense B. 6. Middle English: see English n. 2b.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > a language > [adjective] > living, dead, or archaic
forsakena1613
living1657
mort1659
modern1699
middle1830
archaic1832
relict1887
1830 Foreign Rev. Mar. 496 Dr. Grimm..introducing between the ancient and modern four intermediate Teutonic languages, which he styles middle high Dutch, middle nether Dutch (meaning low Dutch), middle Netherlandish (i.e. Dutch), and middle English.
1841 R. G. Latham Eng. Lang. 416 Middle Danish.
1934 R. C. Priebsch & W. E. Collinson German Lang. ii. vii. 323 Within Middle Franconian the Ripuarian dialect..keeps unshifted rp.
1955 Mém. de la Soc. Finno-Ougrienne 110 15 The history of Mongolian can be divided into three main stages. A. Common Mongolian... B. Middle Mongolian... C. Modern Mongolian.
1968 Language 44 1 But if Skt. dehí is not original, then we have to explain the Middle Indic stem de-, which is commonly derived from it.
1972 Computers & Humanities 6 262 Middle Chinese (sixth-century) had four tones: I (ping ‘level’), II (shang ‘rising’), [etc.].
1992 Word 43 4 Middle Norwegian dates from the advent of the Black Death in 1349.
†c. Phonetics. Of consonantal sounds: = medial adj. 2c. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of speech sound > speech sound > speech sound by manner > [adjective] > stop
mute1589
medial1833
middle1833
lene1841
stopped1874
1833 Penny Cycl. I. 379/2 The middle (or medial) letters, g, d, b.
5. Frequently with capital initial.
a. Geology. Designating a subdivision of a geological formation or a geological or archaeological period that is intermediate between two other subdivisions similarly named (called ‘Upper’ and ‘Lower’).
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > age or period > [adjective] > intermediate period
middle1838
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > age or period > stratigraphic units > [adjective] > intermediate
middle1838
1838 Penny Cycl. XI. 138 Middle lias shale.
1859 J. R. Greene Man. Animal Kingdom I. 25 They are chiefly characteristic of the Middle Eocene.
1885 R. Etheridge Stratigr. Geol. & Palæontol. 441 The Middle Jurassic rocks comprise two complete and distinct groups—1. The Oxfordian; 2. The Corallian.
1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 309/1 In the higher beds of the series marine forms belonging to the middle and upper Jurassic have been found.
1949 A. E. Trueman Geol. & Scenery Eng. & Wales iii. 32 The north-western face of the ridge in this area is made by a group of ironstones, the Middle Lias ironstone or Marlstone.
1973 Listener 5 July 2/2 It was in the shadowy middle Triassic that the ancestors of the dinosaurs..made their first appearance.
1985 E. H. Colbert Wandering Lands & Animals (new ed.) iii. 92 The Middle and Upper Coal Measures of Britain..as they are exposed in the vicinity of Newcastle.
b. Archaeology and History. Designating a subdivision of a culture or an archaeological or historical period that is intermediate between two other subdivisions similarly named (called ‘Early’ and ‘Late’).
ΚΠ
1903 Jrnl. Anthropol. Inst. 33 396 The Ægean instances agree on the whole with these limits though the Theræan example, associated with Cycladic equivalents of ‘middle Minoan’, may be somewhat earlier.
1920 Polit. Sci. Q. 35 501 Beneath it lie strata of debris..left there by neolithic makers of hand-burnished pottery and by ‘early’, ‘middle’ and ‘late’ Minoans.
1927 H. J. E. Peake & H. J. Fleure Peasants & Potters V. 71 It was their arrival that so changed the culture of the Nile dwellers as to enable us to speak of a distinct Middle Predynastic Period.
1938 Amer. Home June 67/2 Table accessories for reproductions of these fine old pieces embrace the china, glassware, and silver used in the middle Colonial period.
1957 V. Childe Dawn European Civilization (ed. 6) iv. 49 Åberg has shown that some graves must be Middle or even Late Cycladic.
1973 Times 26 July 18/4 Several pottery vessels..and the architecture of the house suggested connexions with the northern part of Yucatan in the Early and the Middle Postclassic periods.
1991 P. James et al. Cent. of Darkness (1992) ii. 27 The typical lakeside village of Peschiera gives its name to the Middle Bronze Age culture which produced this fine metalwork.
B. n.
1. The point, part, or position in space that is at an equal distance from the sides, edges, or ends (of a line, area, volume, etc.); the point in time equally far from the beginning and end of a period, process, etc.pig (or piggy) in the middle: see pig n.1 14. the middle of nowhere: see nowhere adv. 2. to knock (a person) into the middle of next week: see knock v. 6f. to play both ends against the middle: see play v. 24b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > central condition or position > [noun] > middle or centre
middleeOE
mideOE
midwardOE
middleheada1325
pointc1330
midsa1382
meanc1390
middleward1431
midstc1450
centrea1500
centrya1535
navel1604
umbilic1607
meditullium1611
half-way1634
umbrila1636
amidst1664
eye1671
umbil1688
omphalos1845
mid-career1911
middle-middle1926
eOE Cleopatra Gloss. in W. G. Stryker Lat.-Old Eng. Gloss. in MS Cotton Cleopatra A.III (Ph.D. diss., Stanford Univ.) (1951) 178 Ex centro, of midle.
OE Cynewulf Elene 863 He asettan heht on þone middel þære mæran byrig beamas mid bearhtme.
a1200 MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 85 Here lifes ende was bicumeliche, þe middel and þe biginnenge.
c1300 Havelok (Laud) (1868) 2092 (MED) Aboute þe middel of þe nith Wok ubbe.
c1325 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) 1399 (MED) Aboute ierusalem þis noumbringe he bigan, As in þe middel of þe world.
c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. xvii. 189 Were þe myddel of myn honde..ypersshed.
1420 in F. J. Furnivall Fifty Earliest Eng. Wills (1882) 46 I bord mausure with a bond of seluer..wyth a prent in þe myddylle.
a1425 J. Wyclif Sel. Eng. Wks. (1869) I. 367 (MED) Þis gospel telliþ þe middil of a storie of Seint Joon Baptist.
a1500 (?c1450) Merlin 108 After the myddill of August he helde court roiall.
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 245/1 Myddle of the day, midy.
1570 B. Googe tr. T. Kirchmeyer Popish Kingdome iv. 57 To Church they come with beades of bone,..Whose middles pierced through are tide, and ioyned with a string.
1597 W. Shakespeare Richard III iii. v. 2 Canst thou..Murther thy breath in middle of a word, And then beginne againe. View more context for this quotation
1611 Bible (King James) Judges ix. 37 See, there come people downe by the middle of the land. View more context for this quotation
1672 French Rogue xxi. 136 The Nights were very hot, it being then the middle of Summer.
1726 J. Swift Gulliver II. iv. ii. 27 In the middle was a large Rack with Angles answering to every Partition of the Manger.
1749 J. Martyn in tr. Virgil Bucolicks p. liv The fourth Georgick, from the middle to the end, was [etc.].
1772 J. Priestley Inst. Relig. (1782) I. 413 Pausanias..wrote about the middle of the second century.
1863 Chambers's Encycl. V. 715/2 In 1395 they [sc. the Jews] were indefinitely banished from the middle of France.
1865 E. B. Tylor Res. Early Hist. Mankind vi. 133 The heads, middles, and roots of plants.
1902 A. B. Davidson Biblical & Lit. Ess. 266 Beginnings or middles or ends of poems.
1925 J. Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer ii. v. 224 In the middle of the night I hear an automobile go by.
1960 D. C. Braungart & R. Buddeke Introd. Animal Biol. (ed. 5) xii. 171 Attached at their middle to the anterior end of the ventriculus are three pairs of gastric ceca.
1996 R. Mabey Flora Britannica 274/2 (caption) A yellow-flowered balsam introduced from Russia about the middle of the nineteenth century.
2.
†a. The position of being among or surrounded by a group of people, of being within a town, etc.; cf. midst n. 2. Chiefly in in the middle of, in the midst of, among. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > central condition or position > [noun] > position of being in the midst
middleeOE
mideOE
midsa1382
midst1535
the world > space > relative position > condition or fact of being interjacent > position of being among > [noun]
middleeOE
the world > space > relative position > condition or fact of being interjacent > position of being among > among [preposition]
amongeOE
amidOE
amongst1258
in (the) mids (of)a1382
in the middle ofc1384
amella1400
amidmonga1500
in the midst of1535
in midst (of)a1556
eOE (Mercian) Vespasian Psalter (1965) cix. 3 (2) Dominaueris in medio inimicorum tuorum : waldes in midle feonda ðinra.
OE West Saxon Gospels: Mark (Corpus Cambr.) ix. 36 Þa nam he anne cnapan & gesette on hyra middele.
OE Stowe Psalter cxxxv. 11 Qui eduxit israhel de medio eorum : se ðe alædde [israhel] of middele heora.
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) 2 Cor. vi. 17 Go ȝe out of the myddel of hem.
a1425 J. Wyclif Sel. Eng. Wks. (1871) III. 342 But oonhede on heed of holi Chirche is Jesus Crist here wiþ us, þat is ever in þe myddil of þree þat ben gedrid in his name.
?a1425 Mandeville's Trav. (Egerton) (1889) 2 (MED) He will ger crie it openly in þe middell of a toune.
1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. Acts xxvii. 18–26 Than Paul standyng in the mydle amonge them, sayed [etc.].
1769 H. Brooke Fool of Quality IV. xvii. 181 [He] is come to rob me in broad day, and in the middle of my own people.
b. in the middle of: while (something) is going on; during the continuance of (an action, state, or event); (frequently with gerund) fully engaged or occupied in, while, (doing something); ‘in the thick of’. Cf. midst n. 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > doing > a proceeding > in progress [phrase] > while something is going on
in the midst of1535
in midst (of)a1556
in the middle of1609
thick1681
1609 J. More in Buccleuch MSS (Hist. MSS Comm.) (1899) I. 82 As I was yesterday in the middle of removing to my house in the Old Bayley, I [etc.].
1635 G. Wither Coll. Emblemes i. 19 They have brought most likely Hopes to nought; And, in the middle of their Courses, tir'd.
1683 E. Brown tr. Plutarch Life Themistocles in J. Dryden et al. tr. Plutarch Lives I. 394 It is reported that in the middle of the Fight a great Flame shined bright in the Air above the City of Eleusis.
1690 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding ii. xxiii. 140 We should..be less able to sleep or meditate, than in the middle of a Sea-fight.
1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 98. ¶3 Many of the Women threw down their Head-dresses in the Middle of his Sermon, and made a Bonfire of them.
1768 H. Brooke Fool of Quality III. xv. 96 I went and went again, in the middle of my wants, and in the middle of my sorrows, to ask..for his pay.
1814 W. Scott Waverley I. xi. 149 In the middle of this din, the Baron repeatedly implored silence. View more context for this quotation
1875 B. Jowett tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) I. 373 I have often been stopped in the middle of a speech.
1901 R. Kipling Kim xii. 322 He is right—a great and a wonderful world—and I am Kim—..one person—in the middle of it all.
1953 H. Clevely Public Enemy xvii. 99 In the middle of reading something, his attention would wander.
1987 E. Leonard Bandits iii. 34 It was like coming in in the middle of a conversation.
c. slang (originally U.S.). in the middle: in a difficult, dangerous, or untenable position; in trouble.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > difficulty > [phrase] > in a difficult position
between the beetle and the block1590
between two fires1885
(crushed, etc.) between the upper and the nether millstones1902
between a rock and a hard place1921
in the middle1930
1930 Amer. Mercury Dec. 457/1 What's the idea? Trying to put me in the middle with the law?
1943 R. Chandler Lady in Lake (1944) xxxiv. 179 The other guy could have knocked him out to put him in the middle.
1954 ‘N. Blake’ Whisper in Gloom ii. xvi. 217 I still don't like it. How d'ya know he's not leaving us in the middle?
1972 J. Burmeister Running Scared x. 131 I am the man in the middle. If your note giving my location should go astray..I could quietly starve to death.
1982 ‘L. Cody’ Bad Company xvii. 119 Why do I always get caught in the middle?
d. Cricket. in the middle: in the centre of the pitch, esp. at the wicket.
ΚΠ
1958 J. C. Cunningham Let. 27 May in M. Williams Way to Lord's (1983) xii. 242 Some early season practice in the middle.
1976 Ld. A. F. Douglas-Home Way Wind Blows ii. 32 I remember one day when I had been scratching about in the middle for an interminable time, he came up to me and said, ‘For God's sake, sir, if you must miss—do it in style.’
1982 M. Brearley Phoenix from Ashes vi. 89/1 Back in the middle, neither Alderman nor Lillee swung the ball at all.
1994 Wisden Cricket Monthly June 40/1 I've always believed that there's nothing which can better half-an-hour in the middle.
3. The middle part of the human body; the waist.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > order > order, sequence, or succession > middle > [noun]
middleeOE
mideOE
the world > life > the body > external parts of body > trunk > [noun] > middle of trunk or waist
middleeOE
mideOE
girdlec1275
rondelc1300
girdlesteadc1330
waistc1386
belt steadc1540
girding-place1601
midriff1823
beltline1892
midsection1956
eOE Werden Gloss. in J. H. Gallée Old-Saxon Texts (1894) 343 puu&enus [read pube tenus], oð middil.
OE Blickling Homilies 141 Hie gegripan on hire middel.
c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 14009 Þa leo me orn foren to and iueng me bi þan midle.
c1325 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) 8962 Gurde aboute hire middel a uair linne ssete.
a1425 (?a1400) G. Chaucer Romaunt Rose (Hunterian) 1032 Yong she was..and in hir myddill small.
c1440 (?a1400) Morte Arthure 2205 The medill of þat myghtly..He merkes thurghe the maylez the myddes in sondyre.
1494 Acct. Creation Duke of York in J. Gairdner Lett. Reigns of Richard III & Henry VII (1861) I. 400 [Ladies] with great chenys of gold about their myddlys.
1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection i. sig. Biv Aboue the mydle, he was the moste amiable stature of a man.
1584 A. Barlowe in R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations (1889) XIII. 286 In her eares shee had bracelets of pearles hanging down to her middle.
1634 T. Herbert Relation Some Yeares Trauaile 19 Both sexe goe naked, a linnen cloth only about their middles.
1653 H. Cogan tr. F. M. Pinto Voy. & Adventures xlvi. 268 The Water came up to our Middles.
1712 J. Addison Spectator No. 407. ¶5 Stroaking the sides of a long Whigg that reaches down to his Middle?
1769 E. Bancroft Ess. Nat. Hist. Guiana 370 A piece of coarse blue, or brown linen, which is applied to the middle in both sexes.
1811 Sporting Mag. 38 220 They hold each other tight by the middle.
1843 G. Borrow Bible in Spain II. xiii. 300 He has got it buckled round his middle beneath his pantaloons.
1885 H. R. Haggard King Solomon's Mines x. 153 He slipped off the ‘moocha’ or girdle round his middle, and stood naked before us.
1963 M. Laurence Tomorrow-tamer 226 She wore only a shamecloth, a mere flutter of red and beaded rag around her middle and between her legs.
1990 A. Munro Friend of my Youth 219 Has he gone white-haired, has he thickened around the middle?
†4. Something intermediate between two extremes, esp. of quality or degree; a point of moderation or compromise; a mean. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > relationship > equality or equivalence > condition of being mean or average > [noun] > mean
middlingOE
middlelOE
meanc1450
neutralityc1475
moyen1484
temper?1523
mediety1573
medium1593
temperature1598
temperament1604
intermedial1605
median1635
intermediate1650
average1737
middle term1754
mesne1821
intermediacy1836
intermediary1865
lOE King Ælfred tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (Bodl.) xxxiii. 80 Sie lyft þonne is genemned þæt hio is ægþer ge ceald ge wæt ge wearm..forþam ðe hio is gesceapen on þam midle betwux þære drygan & þære cealdan eorþan & þam hatam fyre.
c1225 (?c1200) Sawles Warde (Bodl.) (1938) 6 (MED) Þet ha leare ham mete, þet me meosure hat, þe middel of two uueles.
c1225 (?c1200) Sawles Warde (Bodl.) (1938) 20 (MED) Ne mei na wunne ne na flesches licunge..bringe me ouer þe midel of mesure & of mete.
1340 Ayenbite (1866) 249 (MED) Sobrete ne is oþer þing þanne to loki riȝte mesure, þet alneway halt þane middel ine to moche and to lite.
c1450 (c1400) Bk. Vices & Virtues (Huntington) (1942) 277 Who-so kepeþ þe myddel bitwexe litle and mochel..is a-liȝht wiþ grace y-tauȝt.
1565 W. Alley Πτωχομυσεῖον ii. f. 26v Meanes and middles..pertaine to the prouidence of God.
1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §616 Bulbous Roots, Fibrous, Roots and Hirsute Roots... The Hirsute is a Middle betweene both.
1667 R. Allestree Causes Decay Christian Piety v. 72 There being in this case no middle between devout reverence, and horrid blasphemy.
1683 D. A. Whole Art Converse 46 These two extreams we must avoid and search a middle.
1725 D. Defoe Compl. Eng. Tradesman I. xix. 318 To keep the safe middle between these extremes.
1790 E. Burke Refl. Revol. in France 92 The pretended rights of these theorists are all extremes... The rights of men are in a sort of middle . View more context for this quotation
†5. An intermediate cause or agency, a mediator. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > advantage > usefulness > use (made of things) > instrumentality > [noun] > intermediate agency > intermediate means
middlec1230
medium1585
intermedium1660
intermede1791
intermediary1859
c1230 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Corpus Cambr.) (1962) 94 Þeos [sc. temptations] cumeð alswa of godd. ah nawt as doð þe oþre. wið uten euch middel.
1678 R. Cudworth True Intellect. Syst. Universe i. iv. 468 The worshipping (besides One Supreme God) of other created Beings,..as Middles or Mediators betwixt Him and Men.
†6. An intervening substance; = medium n. 5. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > condition of being external > covering > wrapping > [noun] > enfolding or enveloping > that which or one who > an enveloping medium
mantleeOE
bathc1386
middle1570
swathe1615
medium1664
1570 J. Dee in H. Billingsley tr. Euclid Elements Geom. Math. Præf. sig. cj So that both theyr mouynges be in ayre, or both in water: or in any one Middle.
†7.
a. An intervening point or part in space or arrangement; an intermediate thing. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > condition or fact of being interjacent > [noun] > that which is interjacent
meana1400
moyen1483
umpire1605
intermedium1611
intermediate1650
middle1665
between-lier1674
borderland1821
border-ground1871
border-world1878
grey zone1900
twilight zone1909
grey area1935
1665 T. Manley tr. H. Grotius De Rebus Belgicis 397 The little River of Neths, scituate in the middle between Antwerp and Mechlin.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost ix. 605 I..with capacious mind Considerd all things visible in Heav'n, Or Earth, or Middle, all things fair and good. View more context for this quotation
b. A thing placed in a central position. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
1796 C. Abbot Diary 20 Feb. in Diary & Corr. (1861) I. 35 The second course had a pig at top, a capon at bottom, and the two centre middles were turkey and a larded Guinea fowl.
1854 T. F. Adams Typographia ii. iii. 72 N dashes are generally cast, which are very convenient in justifying lines of dashes, and in the arrangement of braces where middles and corners are used.
†8. Nautical. = middle ground n. 1. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > land mass > reef > sandbank > [noun]
sand-ridgec1000
hurst1398
shelp1430
sand1495
ayre1539
bar1587
knock1587
sandbank1589
middle ground1653
middle1702
overslaugh1755
sandbar1767
sea-bank1828
tow-head1829
wharf1867
whale1905
horse1926
1702 London Gaz. No. 3844/4 The Sands..of the small Middle, in the Narrow off of Winterton near Yarmouth.
1801 Ld. Nelson in A. Duncan Life (1806) 136 The Agamemnon..could not weather the shoal of the Middle.
9. Grammar. [Compare Hellenistic Greek μεσότης.] The middle voice; a verb in the middle voice, a middle verb form (see sense A. 4a).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > voice > [noun] > middle
middle1751
1751 J. Harris Hermes i. ix. 179 Of verbs, the middle cannot be called necessary, because most Languages have done without it.
1818 E. V. Blomfield tr. A. H. Matthiæ Greek Gram. II. 712 The proper signification of the middle is most evident in the aorists.
1906 J. H. Moulton Gram. N.T. Greek I. 155 As a matter of fact, the proportion of strictly reflexive middles is exceedingly small.
1987 Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics 32 209 Keyser and Roeper (1984) have demonstrated how ergatives and middles in English split along a number of dimensions.
10. U.S. regional (chiefly southern). In singular and plural. A strip of unplanted ground between two rows of a planted crop such as cotton or corn.
ΚΠ
1825 D. R. Williams in Amer. Farmer 12 Aug. 161/3 The balks, or ‘middles’, are then to be flushed up.
1858 R. L. Allen Amer. Farm Bk. 157 The middles, or spaces between the furrows, are not broken up until the rice attains several inches in height.
1907 T. F. Hunt Forage & Fiber Crops in Amer. 352 The field is made up into alternate beds and middles or into ‘back’ furrows and ‘dead’ furrows.
1946 Democrat 11 Apr. 1/5 Two and three year old kudzu stands that have not covered the middles will be greatly helped if the middles are broken out.
1967 M. R. Key Tobacco Vocab. 38 The tobacco grows each side..and you just bust that middle out.
11. Logic. = middle term n. 2. Cf. earlier medium n. 2.excluded middle: see excluded adj.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > logic > logical syllogism > [noun] > middle term
medium1587
mean1599
middle term1605
argument1724
middle1826
1826 R. Whately Elements Logic (1827) ii. iii. §2. 92 From negative premises you can infer nothing. For in them the Middle is pronounced to disagree with both extremes.
1925 G. K. Chesterton Everlasting Man i. ii. 42 As if one were to talk..of taking a walk with a non-sequitur or dining with an undistributed middle.
1972 I. M. Copi Introd. Logic (ed. 4) vi. §4. 200 The fallacy of the undistributed middle.
1998 Isis 89 4 Because of this invocation of the law of the excluded middle, the intuitionists regarded such proofs as ‘meaningless’.
12. The part of a side of bacon between the forehock and the gammon cuts; bacon cut from this part of the animal. Cf. earlier middling n.1 4.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > animals for food > pork > [noun] > bacon > cuts or parts
bandc1394
bacon-flitch1462
flickle1546
rasher1584
gammon1633
flitchen1658
hock1706
middle1859
shoulder-piece1888
corner1891
lachsschinken1901
eye1904
pea meal1933
1859 E. G. Storke Domest. & Rural Affairs iii. 237 The Limerick and Belfast curers also make up different other portions of the hog separately, as long sides, middles, and rolls, for the English market.
1870 J. S. Wright Chicago 211 There are also of long-clean middles, 1,691,000 lbs.; long-rib middles, 605,000 lbs.; [etc.].
1917 G. J. Nicholls Bacon & Hams 70 These middles are cured in dry salt.
1923 R. E. Davies Pigs & Bacon Curing 29 The side may be cut into three parts, comprising the fore-end, the middle, and the gammon with corner.
1990 Good Housek. (U.K. ed.) May 2/2 (advt.) Bacon... You can buy middle and streaky unsmoked, and back unsmoked or smoked.
13. Papermaking. A sheet, or one of the sheets, of inferior paper placed between the two outer sheets in the manufacture of pasteboard; an inner layer in a board.
ΚΠ
1859 Stationers' Handbk. 73 Middles, a paper used for forming the middle or inner portion of card and pasteboard.
1923 H. A. Maddox Dict. Stationery 59 Pasteboard, a grade of cardboard made from a middle or body of common material, lined both sides with white printing.
1979 Gloss. Paper, Board, Pulp & Related Terms (B.S.I.) 5/1 Middle (of board), furnish layer..of a board situated between the two external furnish layers, or between the underliners..or between an underliner and the opposite external furnish layer.
14. A brief essay on a social, ethical, or literary subject in a newspaper or periodical (originally placed between the leading articles and the reviews).
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society > communication > journalism > journal > matter of or for journals > [noun] > article > middle article
middle1862
middle article1876
1862 J. F. Stephen Let. 10 Apr. in Life (1895) 175 Last night I finished a middle at two.
1893 G. Allen Scallywag III. 68 Working away with all his might at a clever middle for an evening newspaper. Paul was distinctly successful in what the trade technically knows as middles.
1975 Bookseller 8 Mar. 1700/1 Not only is it being serialised in the Sunday Times it has been the subject of a ‘middle’ by Peter Green in the Times Lit. Supp.
1984 N. Annan Leslie Stephen (1986) ii. 51 Leslie was writing two articles a week, the one a review and the other a middle on any subject from Poor Law Amendment to Parisian criminals.
1992 Pioneer on Sunday (Delhi) 13 Sept. 8/4 Recently, one of India's largest selling dailies published a graphic account written by its middles editor, of how a new columnist in the rival newspaper lost her virginity.
15. Cricket. = middle guard n. (a) at Compounds 1a. middle and leg n. a guard taken midway between the middle and the leg stump.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > batting > [noun] > positions
guard1843
middle1866
middle guard1871
centre1883
middle and leg1904
two-eyed stance1924
1866 ‘Capt. R. Crawley’ Cricket 22 The batsman should..after asking the umpire for middle, and taking his block at a bat's length from the stumps, stand..in the position shewn.
1904 F. C. Holland Cricket 1 What guard is to be chosen? Some cricketers take centre, some the leg stump, and many middle and leg.
1960 I. Peebles Bowler's Turn 187 He had batted on middle and off and shown a readiness to hook.
1994 T. Heald Denis Compton (1996) x. 142 Ability, flair, brilliance,..the very qualities I lacked but to which I aspired when I took a cricket bat in my hand and asked for middle-and-leg.
†16. = media n.1 1. Obsolete. rare.
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the mind > language > linguistics > study of speech sound > speech sound > speech sound by manner > [noun] > obstruent > stop > voiced
medial1833
media1841
voice stop1844
middle1871
1871 J. Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue i. 4 If the classical word begins with an aspirate, the English word begins with a middle [1873 (ed. 2) medial].
†17. Association Football. A pass from one of the wings to the middle of the pitch in front of the goal. Obsolete (superseded by centre).
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > football > association football > [noun] > actions or manoeuvres
holding1866
hand-balling1867
left-footer1874
header1875
handball1879
goal kick1881
corner1882
spot kick1884
middle1899
clearance1920
cross-kick1927
cross-pass1929
body swerve1933
open goal1934
headball1936
chip1939
through-ball1956
wall pass1958
outswinger1959
cross1961
overlap1969
blooter1976
hospital pass1978
route one1978
sidefoot1979
top bin1999
ankle-biting2001
1899 G. O. Smith in M. Shearman et al. Football (Badminton Libr. of Sports & Pastimes) (new ed.) vi. 108 A middle should never be made high up in the air unless the forwards of one's side are a heavy lot.
1902 Field 1 Mar. 314/1 Evans actually found the mark from a middle by Corbett, but was pronounced offside.
18. Sport. = middleweight n.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > fighting sports > boxing > [noun] > boxer > of specific weight
welter1804
lightweight1817
middleweight1847
heavyweight1857
light middleweight1885
light-heavyweight1887
featherweight1889
light-heavy1892
light welterweight1892
welter weight1896
light welter1904
super heavyweight1907
middle1908
fly-weight1911
heavy1913
superheavy1917
cruiser-weight1920
light flyweight1922
cruiser1928
mini-flyweight1971
1908 Daily Chron. 29 Jan. 9/2 In the middles the best bout was between Carter and Smith, which went for nearly nine minutes.
1932 Boxing 19 Oct. 12/2 The Sunderland ‘middle’ Jack Casey.
1953 S. Bellow Adventures of Augie March vi. 85 Dingbat had had middles and welters, but a good heavyweight fighter was the biggest dough of all.
1986 Punch 16 July 34/1 The spindly, pale-faced hardnut, Fitzsimmons, was a comparative midget who also held world titles at middle and light-heavy.
†19. Stock Market. = middle price n. at Compounds 1a. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > stocks and shares > [noun] > prices of stocks and shares
middle1928
price–earnings ratio1929
curb-price1930
striking price1961
banding1982
multiple1983
1928 Morning Post 19 Nov. The marking-up price..is..presumed to represent the middle of the quotation current at that particular moment.
20. colloquial. A middle-class person.
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society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > [noun] > middle class or bourgeoisie > person
bourgeois1704
gigman1830
haut bourgeois1846
petit bourgeois1851
petty bourgeois1871
middle-classer1886
middle-middle1926
Middletowner1937
middle1955
bourgie1966
1854 Southern Q. Rev. July 253 A story of society in Boston scarcely implies any peculiarities in the materials. Society, in all the large American cities, varies very little. There are always so many classes, or orders, of it, each of which possesses certain recommendations for certain people. There are the tip-tops—‘our set’;—and the ‘middles’, or good people's set; and the ‘slip-slops’, your set, perhaps; but one which you will not readily acknowledge.]
1955 T. H. Pear Eng. Social Differences 101 Wealthy ‘middles’ are now admitted to some formerly exclusive hunts.
1967 Listener 21 Dec. 802/1 If a man spoke rather loudly..keeping his vowels open, then he was an Upper. If he attempted all this and just failed, then he was a Middle.
1991 A. A. Jackson Middle Classes 1900–50 xi. 301 Until World War 1 the wealthier middles continued the Victorian practice of going on holiday with their servants in attendance.

Compounds

C1. Compounds of the adjective.
a.
middle article n. Journalism = sense B. 14.
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society > communication > journalism > journal > matter of or for journals > [noun] > article > middle article
middle1862
middle article1876
1876 Appletons' Jrnl. 17 June 797/2 The remainder are for the most part brief sketches of the Italian winter resorts, contributed to the Saturday Review, and neither better nor worse than the average ‘middle articles’ of that well-known periodical.
a1894 C. H. Pearson in W. Stebbing Charles Henry Pearson (1900) viii. 90 T. C. Sandars..created the so-called middle article—the essay on social topics.
1966 Listener 27 Oct. 621/3 Those ‘light’ middle articles which used to be a feature of the highbrow weeklies.
Middle Atlantic adj. and n. (also middle Atlantic) [compare earlier mid-Atlantic n.] (a) adj. of or relating to the central region of the eastern seaboard of the United States; spec. designating the states of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; cf. middle state n. 2; (b) n. the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
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the world > the earth > water > sea or ocean > specific seas > [noun] > Atlantic Ocean
Atlantica1387
Western Ocean1576
pond1612
Great Lake1684
mid-Atlantic1804
millpond1813
Middle Atlantic1826
puddle1869
whale-poola1876
the world > the earth > named regions of earth > America > North America > [adjective] > U.S.A. > specific states or regions > others
Carolinian1705
Georgian1740
Missourian1761
Alaskian1788
Vermontese1798
Alaskan1807
Michigan1814
Russo-American1814
Illinoian1818
Mississippian1819
Middle Atlantic1826
New Mexican1834
Louisianian1835
Texian1835
Oregonian1850
Texan1852
Nebraskan1853
Tennessean1853
Ozark1856
Dakotan1874
Kansan1894
Ozarkian1906
Tex-Mex1949
Texican1982
1826 N. Amer. Rev. Jan. 84 The North-western Indians are connected with those of the Eastern and middle Atlantic coast.
1843 U.S. Mag. & Democratic Rev. Jan. 8 The ‘Mayflower’..struggles along the middle Atlantic, surrounded by all the terrors of the midnight storm.
1854 Amer. Farmer's New & Universal Hand-bk. 54 In this country it is grown in the north-eastern and middle Atlantic states.
1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 836/2 The last distinct literary personality to emerge from the miscellany of talent in the middle of the century, in the middle Atlantic states, was James Bayard Taylor.
1932 Sun (Baltimore) 6 Sept. 14/2 The play-off for the Middle Atlantic League baseball title will start Wednesday.
1959 P. O'Brian Unknown Shore x. 200 They sailed through a phosphorescent sea as warm as milk, across the middle Atlantic to Brazil.
1976 W. W. Warner Beautiful Swimmers vi. 127 The menhaden has even more names than the herring. In New England it is the pogy; in the middle Atlantic states, the mossbunker.
1993 Washington Post 2 May (Mag. section) 10/2 As an instructor, the Vienna resident and former Middle Atlantic PGA teacher of the year has earned a godlike reputation.
† middle bachelor n. Obsolete a B.A. of standing between senior and junior, i.e. in his or her second year (in later use U.S.).
ΘΚΠ
society > education > educational administration > university administration > taking degree or graduation > [noun] > degree holder
master1380
bachelorc1386
doctorc1400
magister1459
sir1557
Dra1593
doctorate1651
baccalaur1661
baccalaureate1696
formed bachelor1738
middle bachelor1759
Mus.B.1801
PhD1839
diplomate1879
maid1881
Mus. Bac.1889
postdoctoral1962
postdoc1964
B.A.-
B.L.-
1759 Ann. Reg. 1758 91 Two middle batchelors of the University of Cambridge.
1840 J. Quincy Hist. Harvard Univ. II. 540 A Senior Sophister has authority to take a Freshman from a Sophomore, a Middle Bachelor from a Junior Sophister [etc.].
1851 B. H. Hall Coll. College Words 207 Middle Bachelor, one who is in his second year after taking the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
† middle band n. Nautical Obsolete a band (band n.2 6) of a ship's sail between the lowest reef-band and the foot of the sail.
ΚΠ
1626 J. Smith Accidence Young Sea-men 9 For clamps, middle bands and sleepers, they be all of 6. inch planke for binding within.
1797 in Encycl. Brit. XVII. 433/1 The buntline cloths and top-linings are carried up to the lower side of the middle band, which is tabled on them.
1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. Middle band, one of the bands of a sail, to give additional strength.
† middle bell n. Obsolete a church bell of intermediate pitch.
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1428–9 in H. Littlehales Medieval Rec. London City Church (1905) 71 (MED) Also, for a bawdryk to þe meddyll bell, viij d.
1515 in E. Hobhouse Churchwardens' Accts. (1890) 70 Item for bawdryk for ye medyll bell vj d.
† middle bend n. Obsolete a particular card-sharping trick (see quot. 1734).
ΚΠ
1734 R. Seymour Compl. Gamester (ed. 5) ii. 6 The other [in Whist] is vulgarly called Kingston-Bridge, or the Middle-bend. It is done by bending your own or Adversary's Tricks two different Ways [etc.].
Middle Britain n. [perhaps after Middle America n. 3] the majority of middle class people in Britain, esp. as representative of conservative political views; cf. Middle England n. 2.
ΚΠ
1973 Listener 6 Sept. 306/1 Middle Britain thinks..one puff on the joint leads to the needle.
1977 O.D. No. 3. 5/1 Must have caused herniae throughout the whole of Middle Britain.
1990 Economist 24 Mar. 12/1 It is Mr Major who seems to sense the fears and hopes of middle Britain. He is an ordinary bloke, everybody's idea of a bank manager.
1998 Economist 21 Mar. 33/1 Gordon Brown had finished his budget speech, and the blows for which Middle Britain had braced itself had not fallen.
middlebuster n. U.S. regional a plough with two mouldboards, which throws earth to either side.
ΚΠ
1889 in Mansur & Tebbetts Implement Co. Gen. Catal. D: Farm Machinery & Vehicles (1893) 86 One man and two mules can do as much with middle buster as two men and four mules with turning plow.
1944 T. D. Clark Pills, Petticoats & Plows 283 In the warerooms or crowded along the aisles in the stores themselves were the assembled implements such as middle busters, turning plows, [etc.].
1982 S. Plumpp Mojo Hands Call 20 Talk between the people and the soil Goes on in sermons by middlebusters Solos by section harrows.
middle C n. Music the note C that is written on the first leger line below the treble stave and the first one above the bass stave, having a frequency of approx. 261 Hz when A is 440 Hz; the C near the middle of most keyboards.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > pitch > system of sounds or intervals > [noun] > diatonic scale series > notes in diatonic scale > notes of specific scales
bemola1327
bequarrea1350
rec1550
G1562
E1596
B1597
A1609
Ca1616
middle C1660
A (also C, D etc.) sharp1783
high C1837
H1880
1660 Specif. Organ Banqueting Room, Whitehall in G. Grove Dict. Music (1880) II. 591/1 Great Organ..9. Cornet, to middle C, 3 ranks..Eccho Organ..18. Cornet, 2 ranks.
1716 Specif. Organ St. Chad's, Shrewsbury in G. Grove Dict. Music II. 596 Great Organ..1. Open Diapason. 2. Stopped Diapason. 3. Principal. 4. Octave to middle C.
1840 Penny Cycl. XVI. 493/1 A middle C stop-diapason pipe.
1876 J. Stainer & W. A. Barrett Dict. Musical Terms 298/2 Middle C, the note standing on the first leger line above the bass stave, and the first leger line below the treble stave.
1935 Speculum 10 239 The mediaeval Great Scale, on which the treatises are based, embraced nearly three octaves from the second G below middle C to the second E above middle C.
1997 Daily Tel. 14 Mar. 3/3 Everything is reaching crisis point in the kitchen. Everybody's nerves are as taut as piano-wire, two octaves above Middle C.
† middle chest n. Military Obsolete the front ammunition chest on the body of an artillery caisson (see quot. 1890).
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1890 Cent. Dict. at Chest Middle chest, the front chest on the body of an artillery caisson, so-called from its position between the rear chest on the body and the chest on the limber.
middle chief n. Heraldry = centre chief n. at centre n.1 and adj. Compounds 3; earliest and more fully in middle chief point.
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1610 J. Guillim Display of Heraldrie i. viii. 30 The Superior Sinister Point is placed nere the Left Angle of the Cheefe, in opposition to the Dexter Cheefe; whereunto, as also to the Middle Cheefe Point.
1660 M. Carter Honor Rediviuus 131 The Pile..hath divers ways of bearing, and is free to any place of the field; but its property is to issue from the middle chief.
1725 J. Coats New Dict. Heraldry (rev. ed.) 276 There are nine principal Points in any Escutcheon... A...the Dexter Chief. B. the..Middle Chief. C. the Sinister Chief. D. the Honour Point. E. the Fesse Point, call'd also the Center [etc].
1863 C. Boutell Man. Heraldry vi. 30 The Pile..a wedge in form, generally issues from the Middle Chief.
1916 Utah Geneal. & Hist. Mag. July 152 The dexter chief point is the upper right hand corner, the sinister chief point is opposite, and the spot half way between is the middle chief point.
1961 C. T. Eisler New Eng. Museums 41 The arms in Panel 2. Parti per pale, sable a lion or, gules, three quatrefoils argent, seeded gules, in middle chief an estoile argent.
Middle Comedy n. [compare classical Latin media comoedia, Hellenistic Greek κωμῳδία μέση] the second of the three phases into which ancient Greek comedy is customarily divided, in which boisterous social and political satire gives way to fictional plots and a focus on contemporary domestic life; (also) comedies belonging to this phase. Cf. Old Comedy n. at old adj. Compounds 4, New Comedy n. at new adj. and n. Compounds 2a.Considered to be the transition phase between Old Comedy and New Comedy, extending from the last works of Aristophanes to the first play of Menander.
ΚΠ
1662 J. Ogilby Entertainm. Charles II 78 Nay, not in the Poets of the Old, or Middle Comedy, some hundreds of Years after Homer.
1775 R. Cumberland Choleric Man p. xii This however is certain that the writers of the ancient or middle comedy made few, if any, approaches towards the pathetic.
1877 Encycl. Brit. VII. 407/2 The distinctive feature of Old, as compared with Middle Comedy, is the parabasis.
1960 T. B. L. Webster (title) Monuments illustrating Old and Middle Comedy.
middle commissure n. Anatomy (now rare) the interthalamic adhesion (adhesio interthalamica), a variably present band of grey matter joining the thalami across the third ventricle of the brain.
ΚΠ
1857 R. Dunglison Med. Lexicon (rev. ed.) 227/1 Middle commissure of the brain, a layer of gray substance uniting the thalami optici.
1881 Science 15 Jan. 14/2 This is the so-called middle commissure of the brain, the commissura grisea, c. mollis.
1901 Gray's Anat. (rev. ed.) 670 In the middle of the [third] ventricle the two lateral walls are almost in contact, and are here united across the middle line by a band of gray nervous matter, the middle, gray, or soft commissure.
1934 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) B. 224 68 Com. med., middle commissure.
middle common room n. a common room in a college used by graduate students; graduate students collectively; abbreviated M.C.R.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > place of education > educational buildings > [noun] > college or university buildings > common rooms
common chamber1668
combination-room1675
common room1683
senior common-room1774
J.C.R.1892
middle common room1958
common area1996
society > education > learning > learner > college or university student > [noun] > postgraduate student > collectively
common room1708
middle common room1958
1958 Times 28 Oct. 12/5 Lincoln College is to be the first Oxford college to establish a special common room for postgraduate students of the college. It will be known as the Middle Common Room.
1971 Guardian 21 Dec. 1/6 The ability of the junior and middle common rooms to play their essential rôle in a collegiate university.
middle course n. = middle way n. 2a.
ΚΠ
1579 T. Twyne tr. Petrach Phisicke against Fortune 108 Keepyng as it were a middle course betweene ambition and modestie, he was content to be a Lorde, but not to be called so.
1618 J. Hales Let. 3 Dec. in Golden Remains (1659) ii. 18 Some thought absolutely it might be permitted them: others on the contrary thought no: some took a middle course, thinking they might preach privately before a select Auditory.
1724 J. Henley et al. tr. Pliny the Younger Epist. & Panegyrick I. i. vii. 14 I will therefore steer a middle Course, and of the two things..I will chuse that, which may not only content your present Inclination, but your Judgment likewise.
1846 ‘G. Eliot’ tr. D. F. Strauss Life Jesus I. 46 Those theologians..who think to unite both parties by this middle course—a vain endeavour which the rigid supranaturalist pronounces heretical, and the rationalist derides.
1871 Athenæum 15 July 87 A middle course between the conventionalism of the Italo-Byzantine and the naturalism or classicism of the rising schools.
1991 Dance Res. 9 4 For a courtier to appear graceful to his peers, all his actions had to seem second nature; that is he had to steer a middle course between sloppiness and wooden concentration.
middle cut n. a cut of meat or fish, esp. salmon, taken from the middle of an animal; also in extended use.
ΚΠ
1825 T. Hood & J. H. Reynolds Odes & Addr. 42 Thou mystery-monger, Dealing it out like middle cut of salmon, That people buy and can't make head or tail of it.
1875 E. Elliott Sc. Nationality ii. 20 Tir'd demons plac'd..Each quality of souls apart..The brittle, and the malleable, The thin, the thick, the smooth, the rough, The middle-cut, and very-tough.
1891 R. G. K. Wrench Winchester Word-bk. 14 Fat flab, Fleshy, Cat's head, Long disper, Middle cut, Rack, Cut.
1960 E. David French Provinc. Cooking 117 The chef's way of doing it is to have a fine piece of middle cut of cold salmon with the skin removed, and the fish thickly spread with the green butter.
1972 Oxf. Times 3 Sept. 9/3 So-called ‘middle-cut’, which is short back and streaky together in one long rasher, is a good buy.
1992 Sainsbury's Wine 14 4 middle-cut salmon steaks, each weighing 175g.
† middle cut file n. Obsolete a file whose teeth have a medium grade of coarseness.
ΚΠ
1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. II. 1436/1 Middle-cut File, a file whose teeth have a grade of coarseness between the rough and bastard.
† middle deck n. Obsolete a ship's deck between the upper deck and the lower deck.
ΚΠ
a1600 Sonnge Sir A. Barton in J. Raine Vol. Eng. Misc. N. Counties Eng. (1890) 485 A piece of Ordnance soon was shot By this proud Pyrate fiercely then Into Lord Howards middle Deck, which cruel shot kill'd fourteen men.
1711 W. Sutherland Ship-builders Assistant 44 The Spirkit Risings under the Middle Deck Ports.
1758 J. Blake Plan Marine Syst. 2 The middle deck tier on board in their proper places, lashed fore and aft.
1873 J. G. Medley Autumn Tour U.S. & Canada v. 77 On the middle deck [of the steamer] is a splendid saloon,..with most comfortable sleeping cabins on both sides, which, by the way, are always called ‘State-rooms’.
middle dish n. Cookery a dish served immediately before the main meat course, an entrée.
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the world > food and drink > food > dishes and prepared food > [noun] > dish > entrée
entrée1653
middle dish1723
the world > food and drink > food > meal > course > [noun] > entrée
entrée1653
middle dish1723
1723 J. Nott Cook's & Confectioner's Dict. sig. Gg7 Serve them up for a second Course, Side-dish, or a Middle-dish for Supper.
1747 H. Glasse Art of Cookery ix. 84 Salamangundy for a Middle Dish at Supper.
1781 M. P. Andrews Baron Kinkvervankotsdorsprakingatchdern ii. 38 Quick with that supper..; but where the devil is the middle dish?
1841 Ladies' Repository Nov. 342/1 The table abounds..in the best of a feast, in substantial middle dishes, in stands of venison.
1991 Decanter Mar. 107/2 Our middle dishes were capretto alle mandorle, Sicilian-style kid in tomato and almond pesto; and caldariello from Apulia.
middle distillate n. Oil Industry a petroleum fraction that comes off at intermediate temperatures (about 180° to 340°C) in fractional distillation, from which are obtained paraffin, diesel oil, and heating oil.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > chemistry > organic chemistry > hydrocarbons > [noun] > petroleum varieties
petroleum oil1799
petroleum spirit1868
middle distillate1951
1951 Q. Jrnl. Econ. 65 218 By subjecting the middle distillates—kerosene and gas oil—to high pressures and temperatures, the refiner could now convert them by this process into gasoline, residual oil, and refinery gas.
1956 Nature 10 Mar. 460/1 Prof. Morton's research work has been concerned with the constitution of petroleum, [and] with methods of separation of hydrocarbons, particularly in the middle-distillate boiling range.
1973 People's Jrnl. 15 Dec. (Inverness & Northern Counties ed.) 1/1 The nature of North-Sea crude oil is more suited to what we call ‘middle distillates’.
1999 Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey) 5 Nov. 74/3 Fifty percent of the refinery's output is gasoline. About 35 percent of the overall output consists of ‘middle distillates’—diesel oil, heating oil, jet fuel.
Middle Dutch n. [after German Mittelniederländisch (1819, J. Grimm)] the Dutch language in the period between about 1150 and 1500.
ΚΠ
1870 J. Helfenstein Compar. Gram. Teutonic Langs. 361 These terminations differ from the Middle Dutch weak noun by using accus. sing. en for e, and nom. accus. plur. e for en.
1914 A. J. Barnouw Beatrijs 1 This literary Middle Dutch, the written κοινή of that period which may be reckoned to extend from the middle of the twelfth to the middle of the sixteenth century.
1993 C. M. van Kerckevoorde Introd. Middle Dutch 1 One can distinguish four major dialect groups of Middle Dutch: (a) Flemish, which was spoken in the region of Flanders, and Zeeuws, spoken in Zeeland; (b) Brabantic, used in the area of Brussels, Louvain, Antwerp, Mechlin, and Breda; (c) Hollandic, the dialect of the county of Holland; and (d) Limburgic, the language used in the eastern part of the Middle Dutch territory.
middle ear n. the cavity in the temporal bone that contains the ossicles and that is separated from the external auditory canal by the tympanic membrane (eardrum) and from the inner ear by the membranes of the fenestra ovalis and fenestra rotunda; also called tympanum, tympanic cavity.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > sense organ > hearing organ > parts of hearing organ > [noun] > ear-drum
tympan1549
tabor1594
drum1615
tympanum1619
meninx1630
eardrum1708
middle ear1808
1808 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 19 387 The muscles of the middle ear.
1840 G. V. Ellis Demonstr. Anat. 282 The tympanum or middle ear is a circular space, situated in the base of the petrous portion of the temporal bone.
1887 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 19 Feb. 407/1 Mr. Baker confined his remarks to abscess from middle-ear disease.
1959 Woman 16 May 31/1 She has all the signs of a really bad acute otitis media—or infection of the middle ear.
1997 B. Rowlands Which? Guide Complementary Med. 206 It can also be used in adults for relieving face, neck and jaw pain, headaches, sinusitis, middle-ear problems.
middle eight n. colloquial a short section, typically of eight bars, in the middle of a conventionally structured popular song or tune, usually of a different character from the other parts of it; the B section in a tune of the form A, A, B, A.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > piece of music > section of piece of music > [noun] > passage in pop music
middle eight1935
1931 Rhythm Jan. 54/2 We are treated to a very stylish middle eight bars in the first chorus by the trombone.]
1935 Hot News Apr. 12/2 ‘Throwin' Stones’ opens up with piano immediately after the intro, the middle eight of the first chorus being taken by the band.
1966 Melody Maker 16 Apr. 8 Doesn't sound as though there's a middle eight. It's good, though not as good as some of their previous records.
1968 Listener 1 Feb. 157/3 Popular song has long been confined to an appalling eight-bar monotony. An eight-bar section, repeated; a ‘middle eight’ and the first eight again.
1987 Making Music Feb. 43/2 The two songs here show definite signs of intelligence, with introductions, catchy choruses, middle eights and all the other component parts that make up good popular songs.
† middle eld n. Obsolete = middle age n. 1; cf. mid eld n. at mid adj., n.1, and adv.2 Compounds 2a(b).
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > person > middle-aged person > [noun] > middle age
middle lifec1330
middle agec1400
mid-agec1450
middle eldc1450
middle yearsc1450
meridian1607
a certain age1748
mid-life1818
middle term1839
c1450 (?a1400) Parl. Thre Ages (BL Add. 31042) 279 In his medill elde.
Middle Empire n. = Middle Kingdom n.
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the world > the earth > named regions of earth > Far East > [noun] > China
Middle Kingdom1662
Middle Empire1698
Cathay1744
the Celestial Empire1824
Flowery Land1847
1698 tr. A. Brand Jrnl. Embassy from Muscovy 100 China is known under several names..the Chineses have retained two,..Chungehoa, that is, the Middle Empire, and Chunque, which is Middle Garden.
1855 G. R. Gliddon in J. C. Nott & G. R. Gliddon Types of Mankind (ed. 7) iii. iii. 688 The period of the Hyksos, or Middle Empire.—There being few monuments for this period extant, we are dependent, apart from Greek lists, upon the Turin Papyrus.
1897 Catholic World Jan. 474 I refer to the Annual Festivals celebrated at Amoy, described by M. De Grout, consul of Holland in the Middle Empire.
1960 K. M. Kenyon Archaeol. in Holy Land vi. 159 The full Middle Empire of the Twelfth Dynasty.
1991 Greece & Rome 38 108 There is a rich variety of topics from which the following may be singled out: the arch of Hadrian in Athens;..Middle Empire sculptural imitation of Alexander the Great;..etc.
† middle frame n. Music Obsolete rare (in organ-building) a wooden frame used to divide the folds of the bellows reservoir (see quot.).
ΚΠ
1855 E. J. Hopkins Organ ii. 15 The folds of the bellows are subject to a constant strain... To give them the power of resisting the outward pressure of the contained air..a piece of frame-work..is inserted between the two series of ribs. This middle-frame holds the ribs so firmly in their proper positions, that there is no liability of the folds bulging.
1880 C. A. Edwards Organs ii. i. 42 Sixteen ribs are used in the reservoir of bellows..divided..by a wooden frame called the middle-frame.
middle game n. Chess the central phase of a chess game when strategies are developed; the part of the game between the opening and the endgame; frequently attributive.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > board game > chess > [noun] > part of game
opening1735
endgame1749
development1820
middle game1848
1848 Chess Player's Chron. Oct. 306 Many there are who have acquired a competent knowledge of the openings and endings, but who, when launched upon the wide sea of the middle game, drift about bewildered, without rudder to guide, or compass to steer by.
1894 J. Mason Princ. Chess 184 No true knowledge of it [sc. the opening] is possible independently of a fair knowledge of..the middle game and end.
1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 14 Nov. 664/4 The main portion of the work..is concerned with middle-game tactics.
1988 Chess Dec. 7/1 Chess masters in their practice frequently aim at theoretically well-known middlegame positions characteristic of various openings.
† middle genus n. Logic Obsolete rare a genus which is itself a species of a higher genus; = subaltern n. 1b.
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1890 Cent. Dict. at Middle Middle genus.
Middle German n. [after German mitteldeutsch, adjective (F. Pfeiffer Deutsche Mystiker des 14 Jahrhunderts (1845) p. xxii); compare German Mitteldeutschland (F. Pfeiffer Deutsche Mystiker des 14 Jahrhunderts (1845) p. xx)] the dialects of middle Germany, geographically and linguistically intermediate between Low and High German, collectively (cf. High German n. 2); (also) †= Middle High German n. (obsolete); also attributive or as adj.
ΚΠ
1846 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. 9 363 [Faculty of] Philology... History of ancient and middle German poetry.
1851 S. F. Baird tr. J. G. Heck Iconogr. Encycl. III. Hist. & Ethnol. 132 Their language is divided into the soft sounding low or broad German, the harsh middle German, and the sharp sounding high German.
1911 Encycl. Brit. XI. 779/2 The High German Dialects. I. The Middle German Group... East Middle German consists of Silesian, Upper Saxon, and Thuringian.
1944 Luxembourg (Geogr. Handbk. Ser. B.R. 528, Admiralty, Naval Intelligence Div.) 43 The native dialect, Letzeburgesch, is a Moselle Franconian dialect belonging to the West Middle German group.
1992 Amer. Speech 67 76 At this point, a comparison with related Middle German dialects is in order.
middle guard n. (a) Cricket (now rare) the guard (guard n. 3b) or stance taken by a batter defending the middle stump with the bat (cf. centre n.1 17c); (b) American Football a defensive player stationed in the middle of the pitch between the right and left guards (guard n. 7d); the position occupied by such a player.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > batting > [noun] > positions
guard1843
middle1866
middle guard1871
centre1883
middle and leg1904
two-eyed stance1924
1871 ‘Thomsonby’ Cricketers in Council 25 Hold your bat up straight, on the popping crease, and ask for ‘middle’ guard.
1962 H. B. Bonham Football Lingo 33 Middle guard or defensive center. In a defensive line, a player stationed opposite the offensive center.
1972 J. Mosedale Football viii. 118 A 300-pound middle guard for the Packers named Ed Neale.
1991 Sports Illustr. 26 Aug. 78/1 The sterling defense will feature All-ACC middle guard Rob Bodine and 310-pound tackle Chester McGlockton on the line.
middle height n. (a) the middle of a height; the distance halfway up a mountain, etc.; also figurative; (b) medium stature.
ΚΠ
1687 J. Norris Coll. Misc. 80 So of the Regions of the air The High'st and Lowest quiet are, But 'tis this middle Height I fear, For storms and thunder are ingender'd there.
1718 N. Amhurst Strephon's Revenge 8 Just as in fervent Transports I expire,..Some haughty, worthless Minion meets my Sight, And checks Devotion in its middle Height.
1796 M. Hays Mem. Emma Courtney I. xii. 60 She was under the middle height, fair, plump, loquacious.
1812 H. Davy Elements Chem. Philos. 91 The Andes, placed almost under the line, rises in the midst of burning sands; about the middle height is a pleasant and mild climate.
1843 G. Borrow Bible in Spain II. xvi. 356 He was a thin man of about the middle height.
1947 W. Stevens Coll. Poems (1954) 290 Angry men and furious machines Swarm from the little blue of the horizon To the great blue of the middle height.
1981 D. Francis Twice Shy xii. 134 A man, it transpired of middle height, middle years and middling grey hair.
Middle High German n. [after German Mittelhochdeutsch (J. Grimm Deutsche Grammatik (1819) I. 149)] High German in the period from the 12th cent. to either 1350 or (now less frequently) 1500; spec. the standard literary dialect which emerged during this period; also attributive or as adj.; abbreviated MHG.
ΚΠ
1834 Encycl. Geogr. III. i. i. 303 Luther, rejecting the Middle High and the Middle Low German, adopted in preference the dialect of Misnia and Meissen.
1851 H. P. Tappan University Educ. App. 110 Elements of the old and middle High German grammar, five times a week, by Prof. Lachmann.
1861 F. M. Müller Lect. Sci. Lang. v. 171 The Middle High-German period extends from Luther backwards to the twelfth century.
1869 A. J. Ellis On Early Eng. Pronunc. I. i. v. 440 In: taunede.., middle high German zounen to shew, (au) seems to be implied.
1940 Speculum 15 338 One of the most beautiful of all Middle High German manuscripts..is the Alsatian Parzival.
1991 Lit. & Ling. Computing 6 65/2 The Cognate Language Teacher at Westfield College, London, leads students from modern to middle high German, or from Spanish to Catalan.
† middle horn n. Obsolete a breed of cow with horns of medium length; a middle-horned cow; cf. middle-horned adj. at Compounds 1b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > group Ruminantia (sheep, goats, cows, etc.) > breeds of ox > [noun] > with medium horns
middle horn1834
1834 W. Youatt Cattle ii. 10 For these reasons we consider the middle horns to be the native breed of Great Britain.
1859 E. G. Storke Domest. & Rural Affairs iii. 98 Some races of long-horns, of short-horns, or of middle horns, or even of polled animals, are to be placed amongst the one class we have alluded to.
middle income n. and adj. (a) n. an income that is neither very small nor very large, an average income; (b) adj. having or relating to an average income.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > management of money > income, revenue, or profit > [noun] > personal income or acquired wealth > types of generally
fixed income1858
spending income1862
middle income1889
unearned income1889
psychic income1904
disregard1940
disposable income1948
1889 Polit. Sci. Q. 4 42 The concessions in favour of the small and middle incomes made by the English income and property tax.
1941 Economist 12 Apr. 475/1 Direct taxation on what have come to be known as the ‘middle incomes’.
1958 B. A. Smith in N. Mackenzie Conviction 59 The major beneficiaries of these changes were the middle-income groups.
1984 Guardian 20 Nov. 7/7 Students whose parents are basically middle-income, middle-class are being hardest hit.
1995 Minnesota Monthly Feb. 53/2 The residents of Brooklyn Center are mostly middle-income, mostly employed, and mostly blue-collar people.
† Middle Inn n. Obsolete rare (probably) = Middle Temple n.
ΚΠ
1450 J. Gresham in Paston Lett. & Papers (2004) II. 51 Prentise is now in þe Mydle Inne.
Middle Kingdom n. (a) Chinese History. [after Chinese Zhōngguó central state ( < zhōng centre, middle + guó country, state, nation), originally the name given to the imperial state, in contrast to the dependencies surrounding it; (also) from 1911, after Chinese Zhōnghuá ( < zhōng + huá magnificent; best part; corona) part of the official name of the People's Republic of China, and conventionally translated as ‘China’] , China (with reference to the centrality of China's position in the world, as perceived by its inhabitants); (b) Egyptian History the period of the eleventh to the thirteenth dynasties of ancient Egypt, from the 21st to the 17th centuries b.c.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > named regions of earth > Far East > [noun] > China
Middle Kingdom1662
Middle Empire1698
Cathay1744
the Celestial Empire1824
Flowery Land1847
society > authority > rule or government > a or the system of government > specific regimes > [noun] > in ancient Egypt
Middle Kingdom1890
1662 J. Davies tr. A. Olearius Voy. & Trav. J. Albert de Mandelslo 215 in Voy. & Trav. Ambassadors The Chineses themselves give it the name of Chunghoa, or Chungque, whereof the former signifies the Middle Kingdom [Fr. le Royaume du milieu (1659)].
1848 S. W. Williams (title) The Middle Kingdom: a survey..of the Chinese Empire and its inhabitants.
1883 Standard 6 Apr. 5/2 The Middle Kingdom has forwarded the..articles.
1890 F. L. Griffith Antiquities Tell el Yahûdîyeh 39/1 The earliest dateable antiquities from Tell el Yahûdîyeh are of the middle kingdom.
1969 V. G. Kiernan Lords of Human Kind v. 150 That China was the Middle Kingdom, the one truly civilized realm, was..an axiom to its inhabitants.
1971 J. R. Harris Legacy of Egypt (ed. 2) 3 Pieces of Middle Kingdom jewellery were reproduced at Byblos in the second millennium b.c.
1997 Economist 1 Feb. 15/2 China is the best illustration, but is only one of many. Officials, ministers, chancellors, presidents are flocking to the Middle Kingdom to press the flesh..and sign the export contracts.
middle lamella n. Botany the central part of the wall between two adjacent plant cells, which is composed chiefly of pectins.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > part of plant > cell or aggregate tissue > [noun] > cell > parts of cell > cell wall and parts
septum1720
pit1839
sieve-plate1875
sieve-pore1875
sieve-tube1875
anticlinal1882
periclinal1882
sieve-vessel1882
pit cavity1884
pit membrane1884
middle lamella1887
torus1887
tonoplast1895
pit canal1911
pit chamber1917
pit aperture1918
pit pair1933
pit field1934
margo1965
sieve-tissue-
1887 T. W. Shore Elem. Pract. Biol. Veg. 13 1. The thin common cell wall, or middle lamella.
1925 A. J. Eames & L. H. MacDaniels Introd. Plant Anat. ii. 25 When a pronounced secondary wall is present the primary wall is commonly called the middle lamella.
1965 K. Esau Plant Anat. (ed. 2) iii. 34 On the basis of development and structure three parts are commonly recognized in plant cell walls: the intercellular substance or middle lamella, the primary wall, and the secondary wall.
1992 M. Ingrouille Diversity & Evol. Land Plants 25 Important constituents are the pectic substances which glue cells together at the middle lamella.
† middle landlord n. Obsolete rare (in Ireland) a landlord who leased a tract of land and sublet it in smaller lots at a higher aggregate rent; = middleman n. 9.
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1817 M. Edgeworth Ormond III. xxiii. 104 The tenants..during the time of the late middle landlord, had been in the habit of making their rents by nefarious practices.
middle latitude n. (a) Nautical the average of two latitudes; chiefly in middle latitude sailing; (b) a region roughly midway between the equator and either of the poles; usually in plural.
ΚΠ
1710 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum II Middle Latitude, in Navigation, is half the Summ of any two given Latitudes.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. Middle latitude, is..used for a Method of working the several Cases in Sailing, nearly agreeing with Mercator's way, but without the help of Meridional Parts.
1834 Nat. Philos. (Libr. Useful Knowl.) III. Navigation ii. iv. 21 This method is called middle latitude sailing.
1845 Southern Q. Rev. July 191 Bisecting the continent through its middle latitudes, a line of lake and river navigation separates the chilled and feebly populated regions of the North from the extensively flourishing ones of the American States.
1902 Encycl. Brit. XXV. 362/2 The intermontane basins and the piedmontese plains that slope eastward from the Rocky Mountains in middle latitudes are treeless.
1992 Independent 2 Mar. 16/1 Blocking appears to be an essential feature of weather circulation in the middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere.
middle-length adj. (of a story, etc.) of medium length.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > types of narrative or story generally > [adjective] > other specific attributes
formal1592
tendency1838
unartistic1854
happy ever afterwards1858
ben trovato1883
middle-length1928
hard-boiled1929
stream of consciousness1931
plutographic1985
1928 Scholartis Press Catal. July A volume of five middle-length (not short) stories by Norah Hoult.
1946 ‘G. Orwell’ Shooting Elephant (1950) 168 The usual middle-length review.
middle level n. an intermediate level or height, esp. within a hierarchy; in later use frequently attributive.
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1861 Times 7 Oct. The penstock-chamber, tide flaps, and overflow channel at the junction of the High Level, the Middle Level, and the Outfall Sewers are works of magnitude and interest.
1862 R. F. Burton City of Saints (ed. 2) iii. 182 Grass carpeted the middle levels, and above all rose red cliffs and buttresses of frowning rock.
1964 P. Worsley in I. L. Horowitz New Sociol. xxii. 375 His sociology has a place for..the academics' illusions about power in so far as they stem from their ‘middle-level’ structural position.
1976 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 15 Nov. 1/2 Scratch a middle-level Statistics Canada bureaucrat and he or she will tell you that it is the ‘Hungarian mafia’ which is running the agency.
1986 G. Johnson Machinery of Mind xv. 279 Hofstadter had been working on programs to recreate what he calls ‘subcognition’, this middle level of the mind.
1991 Japan Forum 3 188 There are quite substantial funds available to create new posts and provide additional middle-level appointments or enhance existing library or research facilities.
1993 Sci. Amer. Apr. 31/1 An atom goes from its initial level to its final one via a ‘virtual’ transition during which it jumps down to the middle level while emitting the first photon.
middle life n. (a) = middle age n. 1; †(b) the life of the middle classes (obsolete).
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > person > middle-aged person > [noun] > middle age
middle lifec1330
middle agec1400
mid-agec1450
middle eldc1450
middle yearsc1450
meridian1607
a certain age1748
mid-life1818
middle term1839
society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > [noun] > middle class or bourgeoisie > life of
middle life1719
c1330 (?a1300) Arthour & Merlin (Auch.) (1973) 5392 (MED) Þis were noble kniȝtes fiue, & alle of midel liue.
1719 D. Defoe Farther Adventures Robinson Crusoe 1 It might be allowed me to have had experience of every State of middle Life.
1756 C. Smart tr. Horace Odes in Wks. Horace (1767) I. vi. 31 Horace is only fit to celelebrate revels, and take pictures from middle life.
1779 S. Johnson Otway in Pref. Wks. Eng. Poets IV. 8 It is a domestick tragedy drawn from middle life.
1855 H. Martineau Autobiogr. (1877) II. 115 The scene [of Deerbrook] being laid in middle life.
1895 Bookman Oct. 23/1 The king..does his best in a toilsome old age to mitigate the disastrous effects of the blunders of his middle life.
1949 H. W. C. Vines Green's Man. Pathol. (ed. 17) xxii. 573 The disease occurs in middle life.
1990 A. Stevens On Jung viii. 165 Some people manage to slip through middle life without acknowledging that anything particularly significant is happening to them.
middle linebacker n. American Football a linebacker stationed in the middle of the pitch.
ΚΠ
1967 Z. Hollander & P. Zimmerman Football Lingo 75 In professional football there are three linebackers, two outside or corner backers and a middle-linebacker whose main responsibility is the center of the line.
1979 Arizona Daily Star 5 Aug. (Parade Suppl.) 6/1 Susie Forton played running back and middle linebacker for the Vikings.
1993 Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey) 30 Aug. 39/6 The Rams sustained two injuries against the Raiders. Knox said middle linebacker Shane Conlan (groin) should be fine for the season opener, but outside linebacker Leon White (hamstring) is questionable.
Middle Low German n. [after German Mittelniederdeutsch ( J. Grimm Deutsche Grammatik I. (1819) lxxi.)] Low German in the period from the 12th cent. to 1500; also attributive or as adj.; abbreviated MLG.
ΚΠ
1834 Encycl. Geogr. III. i. i. 303 Luther, rejecting the Middle High and the Middle Low German, adopted in preference the dialect of Misnia and Meissen.
1929 Mod. Lang. Rev. 24 391 A more satisfactory explanation might be obtained if we could assume that ord and ende were convertible in O.E. or M.E., as they were in Middle Dutch, Middle Low German, and Middle High German.
1981 T. L. Markey Frisian Introd. 39 Many essentially Ingvæonic features of ‘genuine’ Old Saxon were lost in the Middle Low German period.
2003 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 22 Nov. 2 The word booty derives from ‘bute’, a Middle Low German word meaning exchange.
middle management n. originally U.S. the middle level of management in a business or company, esp. comprising departmental managers; managers collectively at this level; frequently attributive.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to status > [noun] > one or those between top and supervisory levels
middle management1941
middle manager1941
mid-management1973
1941 M. C. H. Niles Middle Managem. i. 8 The top management of the future will be drawn mainly from middle management.
1961 B. von H. Gilmer Industr. Psychol. v. xiv. 303 Participative management aimed higher, giving increased status to the people in middle management.
1966 Punch 28 Sept. 485/1 The productivity agreement says a good deal for the efficiency of the group, at least at middle-management level.
1988 D. Lodge Nice Work ii. iii. 92 There was a separate restaurant for middle management.
1994 C. Paglia Vamps & Tramps 53 The so-called ‘glass ceiling’, the invisible barrier that allegedly stalls women at middle management positions.
middle manager n. a manager at the level of middle management.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to status > [noun] > one or those between top and supervisory levels
middle management1941
middle manager1941
mid-management1973
1941 Ann. Amer. Acad. Polit. & Soc. Sci. July 206 Treatment of adjustment of the junior executive to his job is developed through consideration of such phases as..the middle manager as leader.
1966 N.Y. Times 4 Apr. 33/1 The middle managers have, understandably, resisted any change.
1985 Economist 29 June 65/1 In America,..business-school ideas are pervasive among middle managers and are beginning to infiltrate boardrooms.
1997 Times Educ. Suppl. 18 July 41/3 (advt.) We are seeking to appoint a middle manager with flair and initiative to make a significant contribution to the embedding of flexible learning methods across the college.
middle market n. the middle part of a market in terms of price, quality, etc.; cf. mid-market adj. 1.
ΚΠ
1980 TWA Ambassador Oct. 14/1 What has come to be called ‘the middle market’ is getting this attention because the percentage of the population that traditionally has been the bank-trust market—the wealthiest one or two per cent—is either stable or shrinking.
1989 Independent 22 Nov. 19/7 Its readers appear to be slightly younger... They are also less up-market, which may be significant in taking readers from the middle-market tabloids.
1990 Fashion Forecast Internat. Sept. 135/2 (advt.) The Panache range is aimed at middle market and Frillys to the budget market.
middle market price n. the mid-market price of a share or stock; cf. mid-market adj. 2.
ΚΠ
1903 Amer. Hist. Rev. 8 252 The middle market price of the year, 16, gave a valuation of £176,168 for the £1,101,050 nominal capital.
1976 Economist 8 May 102/1 But on a break-up basis a portfolio is likely to be worth less than at middle market prices.
1991 Investors Chron. 26 July 43/1 Throughout the Investors Chronicle the share prices shown are middle market prices.
middle mast n. Nautical = mainmast n.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment of vessel > masts, rigging, or sails > spar > [noun] > mast > mainmast
mainmasta1599
mast1614
middle mast1614
main1802
1614 W. Lithgow Most Delectable Disc. Peregrination sig. Ev Wee shot away their middle mast.
1930 E. Bienhoff tr. H. Egge Diary 24 May in Mississippi Valley Hist. Rev. 17 129 When I was out on the deck, some one told me that the only sail remaining on the second yard of the middle mast had become wet from the wave.
1983 G. Barker Anno Domini 55 The Prince of Darkness came and leaned against the middle mast.
† middle mean n. Obsolete a mean, an average; spec. = mean n.3 7a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > relationship > equality or equivalence > condition of being mean or average > [noun] > happy medium
merry meana1475
golden mediocrity?1510
middle mean1577
happy medium1629
chastity1712
1577 H. I. tr. H. Bullinger 50 Godlie Serm. I. ii. v. sig. L/2 In both, there must be had a middlemeane and measure.
a1599 E. Spenser Canto Mutabilitie vii. xxii, in Faerie Queene (1609) sig. Iiv Next is the Ayre: which who feeles not by sense (For, of all sense it is the middle meane) To flit still?
1726 G. Leoni tr. L. B. Alberti Architecture II. 89/2 These the Philosophers call Mediocrities or Means,..of all which the purpose is, that the two extreams being given, the middle mean or number may correspond with them in a certain determined manner.
middle mediastinum n. Anatomy the central compartment of the (inferior) mediastinum, which contains the pericardium and the phrenic nerves and accompanying vessels.
ΚΠ
1847 S. R. Pittard in Todd's Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. IV. 1/2 Three mediastina are enumerated—anterior, posterior, and middle.]
1857 R. G. Mayne Expos. Lexicon Med. Sci. (1860) Mediastinum, name for the septum..of the pleura, (itself said to form three cavities, the anterior, middle, and posterior mediastina).
1913 Cunningham's Text-bk. Anat. (ed. 4) 1090 In addition to the pericardium and its contents, the middle mediastinum contains the phrenic nerves and their accompanying vessels.
1984 Amer. Jrnl. Surg. 148 402 Sternal safety blades are useful for splitting the sternum in approaching the anterior, superior, or middle mediastinum.
1997 Radiology 202 870 CT-guided biopsy of middle mediastinum lesions was safe and successful with a suprasternal approach.
middle-middle n. (a) poetic. rare the very middle or centre; (b) a member of the middle middle class; the middle middle class.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > central condition or position > [noun] > middle or centre
middleeOE
mideOE
midwardOE
middleheada1325
pointc1330
midsa1382
meanc1390
middleward1431
midstc1450
centrea1500
centrya1535
navel1604
umbilic1607
meditullium1611
half-way1634
umbrila1636
amidst1664
eye1671
umbil1688
omphalos1845
mid-career1911
middle-middle1926
society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > [noun] > middle class or bourgeoisie > person
bourgeois1704
gigman1830
haut bourgeois1846
petit bourgeois1851
petty bourgeois1871
middle-classer1886
middle-middle1926
Middletowner1937
middle1955
bourgie1966
1926 D. H. Lawrence David iii. 21 And only from the middle-middle of all the worlds, where God stirs amid His waters, can strength come to us.
1955 T. H. Pear Eng. Social Differences iii. 90 When ‘middle-middles’ become ‘upper-middles’ they..drop middle-class euphemisms.
1993 Guardian 8 Sept. i. 16/8 It was..a gathering of early fed-upniks and..capable of being added to from the ranks of the middle middle, people with a decent prejudice in favour of winning elections.
middle-middle-class n. and adj. (a) n. (in singular and plural) the middle portion of the middle class; (b) adj. belonging to or characteristic of the middle portion of the middle class.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > [noun] > middle class or bourgeoisie
burgessy1533
menalty1548
middle class1654
middling class1745
middling1751
bourgeoise1769
bourgeoisie1774
petite bourgeoisie1846
petty bourgeoisie1850
middling interest1857
upper middle class1864
middle-middle-class1886
well-heeled1897
small bourgeoisie1970
1886 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Apr. 493/2 She is essentially a specimen of the Berlin ‘middle-middle’ class.
1914 E. M. Forster Maurice (1971) xlii. 202 The clientele of Messrs Hill and Hall was drawn from the middle-middle classes.
1934 H. Read Art & Industry iv. 126/1 He..is a middle-middle-class man with a nice little house in the suburbs.
1973 Listener 22 Feb. 249/3 Their milieux range from lower-middle to middle-middle class.
1994 Toronto Life Aug. 28/1 He emerged..from a middle middle-class adolescence spent in what was then the stifling wasp wasteland of Brampton.
† middle motion n. poetic Obsolete = mean motion at mean adj.2 8a.
ΚΠ
1633 H. Gellibrand in T. James Strange Voy. App. sig. R2 The middle motion of the ☉ Center... The Prosthaphæresis of the Center add... The Proportional Scruples.—l.
1669 S. Sturmy Mariners Mag. vi. iii. 106 The Table of the Middle-Motion of the Sun.
1745 J. Shuttleworth Treat. Astron. vi. 185 Of the Sun's middle Motion.
a1909 A. C. Swinburne in Compl. Wks. (1925) I. 5 A sad touch of sun scores the sea-line Right at the middle motion of the noon.
middle note n. (in perfumery) the central or core note (note n.2 10b) of a fragrance, which lasts over several hours and gives a perfume its distinctive character. Cf. top note n. 2, base note n., bottom note n. 3.
ΚΠ
1945 Perfumery & Essent. Oil Rec. Mar. 57/2 Fixatives and middle notes, like..the sweetly persistent phenylethyl anthranilate, were being more widely used.
1958 Mason City (Iowa) Globe-Gaz. 7 Aug. 10/2 A perfume..may start with a light floral, have a woody middle note and end heavy and resinous.
1977 R. B. Tisserand Art of Aromatherapy iv. 72 He divides the evaporation scale into three sections: top notes, which are the lightest oils, middle notes and base notes.
2001 AXM Aug. 84/3 An initial sensation of freshness is followed by a simple but intense middle note, made more intriguing by the presence of the spicy notes of pepper.
† middle-off n. Cricket Obsolete = mid-off n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > cricketer > [noun] > fielder > fielders by position
middle wicket1772
long-stop1773
second stop1773
stop1773
long fieldsman1790
long field?1801
third man1801
outscout1805
leg1816
point1816
slip1816
backstop1819
long fielder1835
long leg1835
long field off1837
short leg1843
square leg1849
cover-point1850
long-stopper1851
middle-off1851
cover-slip1854
long off1854
left fielder1860
short square1860
mid-off1865
extra cover (point)1867
deep-fielder1870
mid-on1870
cover1897
leg trap1897
infield1898
deep field1900
slipper1903
slip fieldsman1906
midwicket1909
infieldsman1910
slip-catcher1920
infielder1927
leg slip1956
1851 W. Clarke Pract. Hints Cricket in W. Bolland Cricket Notes 137 The middle off, cover point, long slip, and long stop should all save one run.
1887 F. Gale Game of Cricket ix. iii. 139 Middle-on and middle-off were..about equal distance from either wicket, standing back some fifteen yards from the centre between the wickets, opposite each other.
middle oil n. Oil Industry a fraction that comes off at intermediate temperatures (about 200° to 250°C) in the distillation of coal tar and is rich in naphthalene.
ΚΠ
1890 Webster's Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. at Middle Middle oil, that part of the distillate obtained from coal tar which passes over between 170° and 230° Centigrade.
1910 Encycl. Brit. VI. 597/2 The next fraction is the ‘middle oil’ or ‘carbolic oil’, of specific gravity 1·01, boiling up to 240° C; it contains most of the carbolic acid and naphthalene.
1964 N. G. Clark Mod. Org. Chem. xviii. 372 Middle oil. This fraction is rich in tar ‘acids’, tar bases, and naphthalene.
† middle-on n. Cricket Obsolete = mid-on n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > fielding > [noun] > fielding position > specific
bat's end1742
midwicket1744
middle wicket1772
long-stop1773
long field?1801
third man1801
point1816
slip1816
backstop1819
cover1836
long field on1837
short stopc1837
long on1843
middle-on1843
short leg1843
cover-point1846
square leg1849
long off1854
mid-off1865
leg slip1869
mid-on1870
cover-slip1891
box1911
gully1920
1843 ‘Wykhamist’ Pract. Hints Cricket (facing title page) (caption) Short leg or middle on.
1887 F. Gale Game of Cricket ix. iii. 139 Middle-on and middle-off were..about equal distance from either wicket, standing back some fifteen yards from the centre between the wickets, opposite each other.
middle one n. see sense A. 1b.
middle peasant n. [after Russian srednij krest′janin; compare srednee krest′janstvo middle peasantry (Lenin Razvitie kapitalizma v Rossii (1899) ii. 31)] Sociology a member of the second of three divisions of peasantry (esp. of Russian peasantry), between the poor (or labouring) peasant and the rich peasant; cf. kulak n.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > peasant or rustic > [noun]
churlc1275
Hobc1325
Hodgec1386
charla1400
carlc1405
peasanta1450
hoggler1465
agrest1480
hoggener1488
rustical?1532
boor1548
rusticc1550
kern1556
clown1563
Jocka1568
John Uponlanda1568
russet coat1568
rustican1570
hind?1577
Corydon1581
gaffer1589
gran1591
russeting1597
dunghill1608
hog rubber1611
carlota1616
high shoe1647
Bonhomme1660
high-shoon-man1664
cot1695
ruralist1739
Johnnya1774
Harry1796
bodach1830
bucolic1862
cafone1872
bogman1891
country bookie1904
desi1907
middle peasant1929
woodchuck1931
swede-basher1943
moegoe1953
shit-kicker1961
1919 tr. V. Lenin Speech Dec. 1918 in Land Revolution in Russia 7 The labouring peasantry..in common with the ‘middle’ peasantry, does not exploit hired labour.]
1929 Polit. Sci. Q. 44 601 Eagerness to win over this peasant group has caused a movement for the admission of ‘middle peasants’ to positions of influence with a rapidity which some Communist leaders believe represents a compromise with bourgeois principles.
1933 E. Paul & C. Paul tr. J. Stalin Leninism II. 205 The poor peasant is the support of the working class, the middle peasant is the ally, the kulak is the class enemy—such is our attitude to these respective social groups.
1954 tr. Mao Zedong Sel. Wks. I. 139 The middle peasant relies wholly or mainly on his own labour as the source of his income.
1992 E. Acton Rethinking Russian Revolution (BNC) 61 The vast majority continued to be ‘middle peasants’ bound together in the village commune.
1997 G. Hosking Russia (1998) iv. iv. 417 Within the community itself, it was usually not the rich or the poor who took the initiative and exercised leadership, but those whom sociologists refer to as ‘middle peasants’: that is to say, traditional householders, heart and soul of the community.
middle period n. spec. †(a) Geology the Miocene epoch (obsolete); (b) the middle phase of a culture, an artist's work, etc.; frequently attributive.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > existence > state or condition > [noun] > phase or stage of development > middle phase
middle period1858
1858 Ladies' Repository Oct. 595/2 Palms and other southern plants, however, gave it a tropical character, and not till we reach the middle period—the miocene—does the vegetation become extra-tropical.
1863 C. Lyell Geol. Evid. Antiq. Man xiv. 266 A third period when the marine boulder drift formed in the middle period was ploughed out of the larger valleys by a second set of glaciers.
1873 C. M. Yonge Pillars of House IV. xxxvi. 50 Here's the dining room... This is the middle period, the Stewart style part.
1894 G. B. Shaw Music in London 1890–94 (1932) III. 157 Those features of the middle period Beethovenism of which we all have to speak so very seriously.
1951 T. S. Eliot Poetry & Drama ii. 20 His middle-period Plays for Dancers.
1975 B. Felton & M. Fowler Most Unusual 1 He painted completely new works in Vermeer's style, even inventing a non-existent middle period.
1999 BBC Music Mag. Apr. 88/3 Curtis, playing mostly ‘middle period’ sonatas, uses period instruments.
Middle Persian n. the language of Persia (Iran) in the period from about the 4th cent. b.c. to the 9th cent. a.d.; also called Pahlavi (properly the name of one of the writing systems used for it).
ΚΠ
1890 Proc. Amer. Oriental Soc. in Jrnl. Amer. Oriental Soc. 15 p. lxiii Salemann..furnishes an example of transcription into Middle Persian.
1911 Encycl. Brit. XXVI. 247/2 The singular phenomena presented by Pahlavi writing have been discussed... The languages which it disguises rather than expresses—Middle Persian, as we may call it—presents many changes as compared with the Old Persian of the Achaemenians.
1939 L. H. Gray Found. Lang. 320 Besides Middle Persian proper, we have a fair amount of material in some other Middle Iranian dialects.
1998 A. Dalby Dict. Langs. 55/2 As we have them, the texts are accompanied by a translation and commentary, the Zend, in Middle Persian of the Sassanian period.
Middle Platonism n. †(a) the middle period of Plato's philosophical development (obsolete rare); (b) the phase of Platonism between the period of the Academies and the start of Neoplatonism, i.e. from the middle of the 1st cent. b.c. to about a.d. 200, constituting a revival of Platonic philosophy in systematic and dogmatic form (as against the preceding Academic scepticism), and including Aristotelian and Stoic elements, with some influence of Pythagoreanism (best represented in the writings of Plutarch); cf. Neoplatonism n.
ΚΠ
1897 W. Lutosławski Origin & Growth Plato's Logic vi. 358 This short epoch of middle Platonism lasting up to Plato's fiftieth year produced..an amount of text equal to one half of all the works written in the remaining thirty years of the philosopher's life.
1931 L. R. Palmer tr. E. Zeller Outl. Hist. Greek Philos. §85 (heading) The Middle Platonism.
1937 R. E. Witt Albinus & Hist. Middle Platonism (Trans. Cambr. Philol. Soc. 7) p. ix This epitome of Plato's philosophy..will be studied chiefly in connexion with the relevant philosophies of the pre-Christian Era, with the Platonism of the first two centuries of our Era—conveniently termed ‘Middle Platonism’—of which it is a typical product, and with the Neoplatonism of Plotinus.
1967 P. Merlan in A. H. Armstrong Cambr. Hist. Later Greek & Early Medieval Philos. 14 The Platonism of the period between the first century b.c. and his [sc. Platinus' time] (today often designated as pre-Neoplatonism or Middle Platonism).
1991 Classical Q. New Ser. 41 495 The distinction between Neoplatonism and Middle Platonism is a modern one, not adopted in antiquity.
Middle Platonist n. a student or adherent of Middle Platonism.
ΚΠ
1943 Mind 52 369 I should hope, however, that the unknown Middle Platonist may be innocent of this.
1947 A. H. Armstrong Introd. Anc. Philos. xiii. 151 To the Middle Platonists the Supreme God is not beyond all hierarchy.
1995 Philos. & Phenomenol. Res. 55 933 Between Plato and Plotinus come the Middle Platonists, who take over the developed tradition of ethical theory and interpret Plato in terms of it.
Middle Pointed adj. Architecture = decorated adj. b.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > architecture > style of architecture > [adjective] > decorated
decorated1812
geometrical1838
geometric1845
Middle Pointed1846
1846 Ecclesiologist 6 69 The clerestory is Middle-Pointed, of sexfoiled circles.
1876 St. G. Mivart Contemp. Evol. vi. 245 It is much to be regretted that so many of our architects have been so tied down and cramped by the narrow taste of their public for ‘middle-pointed’ architecture with abundant floral ornamentation.
1976 Touring New Brunswick (Tourism New Brunswick, Canada) Christ Church Cathedral was started in 1842... It is an outstanding example of ‘middle pointed’ or ‘decorated gothic’.
1997 Victorian Soc. Ann. 1996 24/1 They show a steep single-framed roof of Middle Pointed type, coming down to a dwarf blind-story and aisle roofs of flatter pitch.
middle post n. Building = king post n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > parts of building > framework of building > [noun] > roof-beam > rafter > posts
pendant1359
pendant-post1359
side post1625
crown post1663
king piece1663
king post1669
hip pole1783
queen post1797
king1811
queen1811
middle post1819
ashlar-piece1869
wall-post1871
pendentive1893
1819 P. Nicholson Archit. Dict. II. 369/1 Middle-post, in a roof, the same as King Post.
1862 Southern Lit. Messenger 34 408/1 A heavy shot struck the middle post, crushing in the iron plating and making an indenture of several inches; this so deranged the lever by which the door was worked, that it could not afterwards be used.
1993 A. R. Ammons Garbage 59 There's one chipmunk you won't see streaking around here anymore..scrambling into the crack under the middle post of the garage.
middle power n. a nation or state which exercises considerable political power over world events, but which is not as influential as a major power.
ΚΠ
1888 tr. J. C. Bluntschli in Overland Monthly May 478/1 While they broke the power of the Burgundian Duke.., they destroyed an important middle power not only between France and Switzerland, but also between France and Austria.]
1918 J. C. Smuts League of Nations 45 The Council..will consist of the..authoritative representatives of the Great Powers, together with the representatives drawn in rotation from two panels of the Middle Powers and the Minor States.
1957 Economist 28 Dec. 1106/2 It [sc. the United Nations]..represents a new working group of ‘middle powers’.
1994 Canad. Def. Q. Mar. 40/1 The shift to a multipolar world, where dynamics of regional conflict no longer revolve around East-West confrontation, has permitted a greater role for middle powers in helping to resolve disputes.
middle price n. Stock Market a mid-market price; cf. mid-price n.
ΚΠ
1872 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. 35 516 All these operations, however, in their adjustment, involve the same principle of compromise that prevails in buying-and-selling, i.e. the middle-price is the ultimate result.
1893 W. G. Cordingley Guide to Stock Exchange 42 With most outside brokers the ‘cover’ runs off ‘at middle prices’; that is to say, the middle price between a jobber's buying and selling prices.
1963 H. D. Berman Stock Exchange (1971) 198 American and Canadian prices are ‘bid’ prices, ie. prices at which the shares in question can be sold, whereas in London, when only a single price is given, it is understood to be the middle price.
1998 E. Bignell Which? Way to save & Invest (ed. 10) xvi. 257 The price quoted in most of the newspapers is normally a middle price.
middle rail n. (a) the rail of a door level with the hands, to which the handle or lock is usually fixed; (b) a third, cogged, rail between the two running rails of a railway line, used in connection with a rack-and-pinion device on an engine for the ascent and descent of steep inclines; (later also) an additional rail between the two running rails which conveys the current in some electric railways (= third rail n. 1a).
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > [noun] > track > types of rail > conductor rail on electric railway
trolley-rail1898
conductor rail1900
middle rail?1905
1678 J. Moxon Mech. Exercises I. vi. 106 The Middle Rail hath commonly two bredths of the Margent of the Stile, viz. one breadth above the Sur-base, and the other below the Sur-base.
1794 W. Felton Treat. Carriages I. 29 The middle rails..are..rabbetted on the top for the boarding or pannels.
1812 P. Nicholson Mech. Exercises 200 Middle Rail [of a door].
1842 J. Gwilt Encycl. Archit. ii. iii. 568 In doors, the upper rails are called top rails; the next in descending, frize rails; the next, which are usually wider than the two first, are called the lock or middle rails.
1865 Catholic World Sept. 858/1 The French Government, on its portion of the line, will use locomotives with a peculiar mechanism, to produce adhesion, on a middle rail placed between the two ordinary rails.
?1905 G. F. Goodchild & C. F. Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 401/2 Middle rail, a heavy conductor in the form of a rail carried on insulating supports, which is laid between the running rails of an electric railway to supply current to the motors.
1993 Collins Compl. DIY Man. (new ed.) iii. 193/1 If a letter plate occupies the middle rail, place the knob above it on the muntin.
middle-range adj. occurring in the middle of a range of values or items; cf. mid-range adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > relationship > equality or equivalence > condition of being mean or average > [adjective]
evenc1300
mean1340
middlingc1485
intermediate1665
half-way1694
middle1699
medium1764
average1770
median1912
middle-range1924
1924 Q. Jrnl. Econ. 39 74 Rates in Tasmania are now higher on middle range incomes.
1964 G. F. Arnold in D. Abercrombie et al. Daniel Jones 17 The middle-range percentages..are provided by comparisons of phonemes.
1967 J. M. Argyle Psychol. Interpersonal Behaviour ix. 161 In the matter of price, for example, some Ss [sc. salesmen] show the middle-range item first, others show the most expensive.
1992 Christie's Internat. Mag. June 14/2 The spill-over effect of resurgent prosperity in many Hong Kong economic sectors has not yet percolated down, from the top level of collectors, to the ‘marzipan layer’ which has produced so many new middle-range collectors.
middle relief n. a period in the middle innings of a baseball game in which the pitching is undertaken by a substitute.
ΚΠ
1952 N.Y. Times 24 Apr. 41/5 Credit for the triumph went to the rookie knuckle-baller for his five-and-one-third-inning middle relief stint, during which he allowed six hits and two runs.
1980 N.Y. Times 2 Aug. i. 15/1 ‘He won it,’ Torre said later, ‘the same way we've won all year: with middle relief pitching’.
1991 Baseball Today 68/2 Floyd Bannister..was signed to spot start and pitch middle relief.
2000 N.Y. Times 9 May d3/3 It is middle relief pitchers, though, who deserve hazard pay for their efforts.
middle reliever n. a baseball player who pitches in middle relief.
ΚΠ
1960 Sporting News 26 Oct. 11/4 The real patsy for the Pirate side was Middle Reliever Fred Green.
1981 Washington Post 24 Aug. e3/3 Who ever heard of a middle reliever making a million dollars?
1994 Time 25 July 62/1 It's more like being the closer in baseball. You have your middle relievers who get you there, and then you come in with the bases loaded and Barry Bonds at the plate.
middle rib n. a cut of beef consisting of the ribs between the fore ribs and the chuck ribs (in quot. 17471 at chuck n.4 2, perhaps: the chuck).
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > animals for food > part or joint of animal > [noun] > ribs
ribOE
short rib1592
spare-rib1596
middle rib1747
piano1911
1747 H. Glasse Art of Cookery xxi. 160 A Bullock..the Fore Quarter..the Chuck-piece,..and Middle Rib, which is called the Chuck-rib.
1844 H. Stephens Bk. of Farm II. 171 In the fore quarter, the fore rib, middle rib, and chuck-rib, are all roasting pieces [of beef].
1963 A. L. Simon Guide Good Food & Wines 406/1 The Middle Ribs and Chuck Ribs, sometimes called Wing Ribs, are both uneconomical and ungainly as joints owing to the larger proportion of bone to meat.
† middle-shot wheel n. Obsolete rare a waterwheel which receives the water approximately in the middle of its diameter, roughly on a level with its axle (as contrasted with overshot and undershot wheels).
ΚΠ
1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. II. 1436/1 Middle-shot Wheel,..a breast-wheel which receives the water at about its middle height.
middle slip n. see slip n.3 14c.
middle space n. Printing a space intermediate in size between a thick and a thin space, equivalent to a quarter of an em quad.
ΚΠ
1854 T. E. Adams Typographia ii. ii. 67 Spaces..are cast to various thicknesses. Five to an m—or five thin spaces; four to an m—or four middle spaces; three to an m—or three thick spaces; and two to an m—or two n quadrats.
1967 E. Chambers Photolitho-Offset ii. 12 The thick space and middle space are a third and a quarter respectively of the width of an em quad.
† middle spear n. [ < A. + a second element of uncertain identity; perhaps compare spear n.4 or speer n.1] British regional Obsolete (a) an upright timber in the middle of a field gate; (b) an upright post to which the two leaves of a barn door fold or are fastened.
ΚΠ
1863 W. Barnes Gram. & Gloss. Dorset Dial. Harrow of a gate, the backer upright timber of a gate by which it is hung to its post. The one in the middle, between the harrow and the head, is the middle spear, which is also the name of the upright beam that takes the two leaves of a barn's door.
middlestead n. British regional the area of a barn containing the threshing floor (see quot. a1825).
ΚΠ
1584 in D. Yaxley Researcher's Gloss. Hist. Documents E. Anglia (2003) 131 In the middestead 1 stand of Rye ixs. iiijd.]
1719 in D. Yaxley Researcher's Gloss. Hist. Documents E. Anglia (2003) 91 A Barn of 4 Golfe steads and one middle stead to be built upon the heath.
1795 Farming Jrnl. 7 Sept. in Norfolk Rec. Soc. (1995) LVIII. 67 Ten loads..plac'd into the south goafstead & middlestead.
a1825 R. Forby Vocab. E. Anglia (1830) Middlestead, the compartment of a barn which contains the threshing floor; generally in the middle of the building.
1948 A. Jobson This Suffolk xiii. 161 And then come the throshin'. One time thet used tew be done by owd fellas in the middlestead o' the barn, using them owd flails all day long.
1969 G. E. Evans Farm & Village viii. 82 Big double doors led to the central bay of the barn, the middlestead, where the threshing was later carried on.
Middle Stone Age n. Archaeology (originally) = Mesolithic n. (rare); (later) a cultural period in sub-Saharan Africa (and to a lesser extent in southern and eastern Asia) beginning between 250,000 b.c. and 100,000 b.c. and ending about 40,000 b.c., characterized by the use of multifaceted, composite tools and generally corresponding to the Middle Palaeolithic in Europe.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > relative time > the past > historical period > [noun] > prehistoric periods
dark ages1842
Iron Age1845
iron period1847
stone period1849
lithic age1862
Aurignac1863
stone age1864
three ages1866
Palaeolithic1869
Middle Stone Age1870
prehistory1871
stone era1873
Siwalik1877
Neolithic1878
hemera1893
Mesvinian1909
Mesolithic1931
Abbevillian1937
Devensian1968
Creswellian1969
dryas1975
1870 Harper's Mag. May 931 Three epochs are traced by M. Reboux [in the vicinity of Paris]; that of the cave bear, or early stone age; the middle stone age, or the reindeer period; and the new stone age, or the period of the dolmens.
1929 Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. 59 429 The Middle Stone Age parallels the Mousterian of Europe, but often in evolved forms.
1959 J. D. Clark Prehist. Southern Afr. ii. 40 The Middle Stone Age is essentially the time of the specially prepared core and the flake tool derived from it.
1970 W. Bray & D. Trump Dict. Archaeol. 146/2 (heading) Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age).
1986 M. Salim (title) The middle stone age cultures of Northern Pakistan.
1995 J. Shreeve Neandertal Enigma (1996) x. 270 There are..signs that Middle Stone Age Africans were mining hematite.
middle temperature error n. Watchmaking and Clockmaking an inaccuracy in a timekeeper caused by the expansion or contraction of the metal at temperatures other than the two extremes at which it is set to function correctly (see quot. 1940).
ΚΠ
1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockmakers' Handbk. (new ed.) 176 Mr. Hartnup, director of the Liverpool Observatory..proposes that navigators should be instructed to allow for the middle temperature error.
1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 547/2 Middle-temperature error, the error in the time of vibration of a compensation balance due to the fact that compensation for dimensional changes of the balance and the elastic properties of the spring is not complete over a range of temperature. A watch or chronometer regulated to be correct at the extremes of the temperature range over which it is to be used will show an error at temperatures between the extremes.
1984 Antiquarian Horology Dec. 147/2 The only cut balance in use today to compensate for middle temperature error of a steel spring is the Guillaume balance.
Middle Temple n. [ < A. + temple n.1, after post-classical Latin Medium Templum (1404), so called from its standing on the site of the buildings once occupied by the Templars (of which the church alone remains): see temple n.1 5a] (the name of) one of the four Inns of Court in London; cf. Middle Inn n.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > legal profession > [noun] > Inns of Court > specific
templec1405
Middle Inn1450
Middle Templea1524
Inn of Chancery1562
Serjeants Inn1565
a1524 in C. T. Martin tr. Minutes of Parl. Middle Temple (1904) I. 20 The holye body of the Company of the Middel Temple, prayyng the Masters and Rulers of the same, [etc.].
1582 G. Whetstone Remembraunce of Sir Iames Dier sig. Bi Fro thence, he was in Strand Inne plaste; But him with fame, the middle Temple graste.
1681 N. Luttrell Diary in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs I. 101 The addresse of some gentlemen of the Middle Temple was presented on Sunday last.
1713 E. Ward Hist. Grand Rebellion I. 65 Bred in the Middle-Temple, yet took care To be no noisy Wrangler at the Bar.
1869 A. Trollope Phineas Finn i The doctor so far gave way..as to pay the usual fee to a very competent and learned gentleman in the Middle Temple.
1999 S. Rushdie Ground beneath her Feet (2000) ii. 26 Sir Darius Xerxes Cama..was a staunch Cantabrigian rationalist and an eminent barrister-at-law who had ‘eaten his dinners’ at Middle Temple.
† middle timber n. Nautical Obsolete a centrally placed timber in the stern of a ship (see quot. 1867).
ΚΠ
1805 Shipwright's Vade-mecum 117 Middle timber.
1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. Middle timber, that timber in the stern which is placed amidships.
† middle tint n. Painting Obsolete a tint or colour midway in tonal value between light and dark; a tint of a particular colour midway between full strength and a pale tint; also in extended use.
ΚΠ
1727 Visct. Bolingbroke Occas. Writer No. 3. 31 I will endeavour to excel in a much more difficult way, in Softenings and middle Teints; and yet by these to form a Manner so strong, as shall be sufficient for my own Reputation, and for your Service.
1769 E. Burke Observ. Late State Nation 91 There are a sort of middle tints and shades between the two extremes.
a1806 J. Barry in R. N. Wornum Lect. on Painting (1848) 183 The middle tint, or intermediate passage between the two masses of light and dark.
1882 Catholic World Mar. 813 This he did by printing his pictures not from one block but from three. The first contained only the outlines and deeper shades, the next the middle tints, and the last the fainter shades.
1895 Internat. Jrnl. Ethics 5 473 Man is sustained, cheered, by the wide, varied range of Nature's middle tints.
middle tone n. (a) a tone of voice between loud and soft; (b) = halftone n. 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > colour > [noun] > half-tint or half-tone
mezzotintoa1650
semi-tint1728
mezzotint1738
middle tone1838
half-tone1867
1838 Biblical Repertory July 349 His voice was both full and clear; his lowest whisper was distinctly heard, his middle tones were sweet, rich, and beautifully varied.
1887 J. Ruskin Præterita II. vi. 193 In washing, the chiaroscuro is lowered from the high lights..to the middle tones.
1915 W. Cather Song of Lark ii. x. 233 His voice was thin, unsteady, husky in the middle tones.
1959 Recomm. for Density & Contrast Range of Monochrome Films (B.S.I.) 5 Prints of black-and-white photographic opaques should be made in such a way that a middle tone..will have a reflection density within the range 0·5 to 0·7.
1961 M. Levy Studio Dict. Art Terms 59 Half-tone, the tone value in a painting which is halfway between the dark and the light. Sometimes called Middle-Tone.
† middle topsail n. Nautical Obsolete a type of sail on a square-rigged ship (see quot. 1867).
ΚΠ
1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. Middle topsail, a deep roached sail, set in some schooners and sloops on the heel of their topmasts between the top and the cap.
† middle tree n. Obsolete (a) (perhaps) a middle post in a gateway; (b) a pole for a cart drawn by oxen; (c) British regional = middle spear n. (b).
ΚΠ
c1395 in Archaeologia (1832) 24 316 (MED) Et expenduntur in j mideltree impositis in portis manerii per longitudinem.
1633 in Minutes Norwich Court Mayoralty 1632–5 (Norfolk Rec. Soc.) (1967) 105 To make a newe middletre for the greate Barne dore.
1834 Brit. Husbandry (Libr. Useful Knowl.) I. 159 A tongue, or middle~tree, or shafts, are alternately fixed to the axle of the fore wheels.
1895 W. Rye Gloss. Words E. Anglia (at cited word) Middle tree, the upright shaft to which the doors of a barn fold.
middle vein n. †(a) Anatomy the median vein of the forearm (obsolete); (b) chiefly Botany, the midvein of a leaf.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > vascular system > blood vessel > vein > [noun] > specific vein
middle veina1398
portaa1398
saphena1398
funisa1400
sciaticaa1400
guidesc1400
haemorrhoidc1400
salvatellac1400
liver veina1425
median?a1425
mesaraic?a1425
sciatic?a1425
venal artery?a1425
sciat1503
organal vein1523
axillar?1541
weeping vein1543
port-vein1586
lip-vein1598
nose vein1598
sciatic vein1598
cephalic vein1599
hollow vein1605
jugular1615
scapulary1615
subclavian vein1615
umbilical vessel1615
basilica1625
porter-vein1625
neck vein1639
garter-vein1656
matricious vein1656
sacred vein1656
subclavicular1656
subclavial1664
vertebral1718
portal vein1765
cava1809
satellite vein1809
brachial1859
innominate vein1866
precaval1866
postcava1882
precava1882
postcaval1891
Vesalian vein1891
sciatic1892
subcardinal1902
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 92 It is good þat þe pacient be late blood in þe middil veine of þe riȝt arme.
c1400 in T. Wright & J. O. Halliwell Reliquiæ Antiquæ (1845) I. 190 (MED) The medyl weyn betuen ham two The coral is cleppyt also.
?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 156v (MED) Þai halde þe stede of mediane, i. myddel veyne.
1693 J. Dryden tr. Juvenal in J. Dryden et al. tr. Juvenal Satires vi. 91 The Man's grown Mad: To ease his Frantick Pain, Run for the Surgeon; breathe the middle Vein.
1703 Philos. Trans. 1702–3 (Royal Soc.) 23 1421* Its peculiarity is underneath, in being white, softish, and having its middle vein spongy.
1914 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) B. 205 16 The medial bundle of the so-called ‘false trichotomy’ continues as the middle vein of the leaf.
1991 Jrnl. Biogeogr. 18 317/1 The presence of sclerenchyma above the middle vein varied within and among the populations.
middle Victorian n. and adj. = mid-Victorian adj. and n.
ΚΠ
1896 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Mar. 397/1 After a long period the reaction came,—not indeed until early-Victorians had become middle-Victorians.
1900 Westm. Gaz. 14 Mar. 3/2 His mental crises belong to a middle-Victorian phase of thought.
1933 Jrnl. Mod. Hist. 5 90 Belonging to a generation of Middle Victorians, he represented a type that flourished most in the reign of Queen Victoria, the literary man who was also a politician and a historian.
middle wall n. a partition wall, a dividing wall; frequently figurative (usually with allusion to quot. 1611), esp. in middle wall of partition.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > parts of building > wall of building > [noun] > interior or partition-wall
woughc888
wallOE
middle wallc1384
parclose1387
partitionc1450
screena1475
hallan1490
parpen wall1506
parpal walla1525
midwall1589
partition wall1605
inwall?1611
parpalling1621
screen work1648
sconce1695
stud partition1775
screening1850
scrap screen1873
parclose screen1889
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) Eph. ii. 14 He is oure pees, that made both oon..the myddel wal of a long wal vnbyndinge.
1449 Contract in R. Willis & J. W. Clark Archit. Hist. Univ. Cambr. (1886) II. 10 With all the Midilwalles and greses to the seid houses perteynyng.
1611 Bible (King James) Eph. ii. 14 Who..hath broken downe the middle wall of partition betweene vs. View more context for this quotation
1749 C. Wesley Hymns & Sacred Poems (new ed.) I. i. ix. 42 Now, Jesus, now the Father's love Shed in my Heart abroad, The Middle-Wall of Sin remove, And let me into God.
1856 A. Manship Thirteen Years' Experience Itinerancy iii. 76 This middle wall of partition was taken away, and folding-doors introduced in its place.
1873 Ladies' Repository Sept. 212/2 Shall our colleges and universities be thrown open to them [sc. women]? Why not? If they desire to enter them—and some do—why not break down the middle wall of partition, and let them enter?
1967 Econ. Jrnl. 77 639 Actions which suggested the building of a middle wall of partition between the autonomous universities and the so-called ‘socially responsive’ institutions of the public sector.
middle watch n. (a) the middle in order of succession of the watches of the night; (b) Nautical the watch from midnight to 4 a.m.; the portion of the crew on deck duty during this period.
ΚΠ
1611 Bible (King James) Judges vii. 19 Gideon..came..in the beginning of the middle watch . View more context for this quotation
1790 W. Bligh Narr. Mutiny on Bounty 1 The master had the first watch; the gunner the middle watch; and Mr. Christian, one of the mates, the morning watch.
1851 H. Melville Moby-Dick xliii. 217 It was the middle watch: a fair moonlight.
1900 J. Conrad Lord Jim vi. 62 It was ten minutes to four..and the middle watch was not relieved yet of course.
1916 ‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin ix. 164 The immaculate Aubrey Plantagenet FitzJohnson happened to be the officer of the middle watch—midnight till four a.m.
1989 R. Garfitt Given Ground 40 They surface from the sleep of history..Who keep the middle watch, the graveyard shift.
† middle watcher n. Obsolete a light meal eaten by crew on the middle watch at about 2.30 a.m.
ΚΠ
1834 W. N. Glascock Naval Sketch-bk. 2nd Ser. i. iii. 48 Cheeks had stayed his stomach with no small portion of the stolen ‘Middle-watcher’, left untouched upon the table.
1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. 479 Middle-watcher, The slight meal snatched by officers of the middle-watch about five bells (or 2.30 a.m.).
middle-water adj. designating ships engaged in fishing at an intermediate distance from land.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > hunting > fishing > type or method of fishing > [adjective] > middle distance fishing
middle-water1962
1962 J. Tunstall Fishermen ix. 218 In Hull all the ships are distant-water trawlers, whereas in the other ports there are more near and middle-water ships.
1984 D. Cooper in Listener 12 July 17/2 The dozen or so larger middle-water vessels which had been working out of Fleetwood moved to Hull.
Middle White n. a medium-sized white (originally Yorkshire) breed of pig with prick ears; a pig of this breed.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > order Artiodactyla (cloven-hoofed animals) > pig > [noun] > specific breeds > Yorkshire
large white1786
Middle White1893
Yorkshire1902
1877 J. Coleman Sheep & Pigs vi. 207 (heading) Middle-bred white pigs.]
1893 L. M. Douglas Man. Pork Trade p. xiv (caption) Small and Middle White Yorkshire Pigs.
1953 A. Jobson Househ. & Country Crafts vi. 65 Almost every county in England has produced its own breed of pigs, and we have amongst others Large and Middle White.
1989 National Trust Mag. Spring 17/1 The Middle White and Berkshire pigs..are ideal pork pigs.
† middle wicket n. Cricket Obsolete = mid-off n.; cf. midwicket n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > fielding > [noun] > fielding position > specific
bat's end1742
midwicket1744
middle wicket1772
long-stop1773
long field?1801
third man1801
point1816
slip1816
backstop1819
cover1836
long field on1837
short stopc1837
long on1843
middle-on1843
short leg1843
cover-point1846
square leg1849
long off1854
mid-off1865
leg slip1869
mid-on1870
cover-slip1891
box1911
gully1920
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > cricketer > [noun] > fielder > fielders by position
middle wicket1772
long-stop1773
second stop1773
stop1773
long fieldsman1790
long field?1801
third man1801
outscout1805
leg1816
point1816
slip1816
backstop1819
long fielder1835
long leg1835
long field off1837
short leg1843
square leg1849
cover-point1850
long-stopper1851
middle-off1851
cover-slip1854
long off1854
left fielder1860
short square1860
mid-off1865
extra cover (point)1867
deep-fielder1870
mid-on1870
cover1897
leg trap1897
infield1898
deep field1900
slipper1903
slip fieldsman1906
midwicket1909
infieldsman1910
slip-catcher1920
infielder1927
leg slip1956
1772 G. A. Stevens Songs Comic & Satyrical 205 May our Innings be long, may our bowling be strong, Middle-wicket I chuse for my post.
1786 County Mag. Nov. 171 These two things then you next must do, Place one at middle wick't, at batt's end two.
1816 W. Lambert Instr. & Rules Cricket 41 Middle Wicket [?1817 Middle Wicket Off]. This man should stand on the off side, not far from the Bowler's wicket, and about 23 yards from the Striker's wicket.
1833 J. Nyren Young Cricketer's Tutor 45 The middle wicket should stand on the off-side, not more than eleven yards from the bowler's wicket.
1866 Routledge's Every Boy's Ann. 511 Thus, long-leg to one bowler may come to cover-point to the other; middle-wicket-on may be cover-slip, short-leg may be middle-wicket-off.
† middle woof adj. Obsolete designating a kind of yarn (not identified).
ΚΠ
1547 Act 1 Edw. VI c. 6 §4 Such of the said Worsted Yarn as is called..Middle-wuffe Yarn.
middle wool n. [perhaps compare post-classical Latin lana media wool of middling quality (1242 in a British source), lana mediana (late 13th cent. in British sources)] wool having medium-length staple; a sheep producing such wool.
ΚΠ
1587 in J. M. Bestall & D. V. Fowkes Chesterfield Wills & Inventories 1521–1603 (1977) 189 1 stone of black woll..1 stone of midle woll.
1837 W. Youatt Sheep 304 A kind of middle wool.
1866 H. H. Crapo Addr. Central Michigan Agric. Soc. 8 It is neither a short nor a long staple, but ranks in this country as ‘middle wool’.
1884 Overland Monthly Apr. 442/2 Mature merino mutton is better than cotswold, because not so grossly fat; equal to the middle-wools.
1989 S. G. Hall & J. Clutton-Brock 200 Years Brit. Farm Livestock ix. 132 They owed some of their form to an unknown long-wool influence from earlier days and were at this point best described as a mixture of short-wools and middle wools.
† middle-woolled adj. Obsolete rare (of a sheep) having or producing middle wool.
ΚΠ
1796 W. Marshall Rural Econ. W. Eng. I. 259 The established breed [of sheep].., is uniformly of the middle-wooled class.
1841 Penny Cycl. XXI. 358/2 Varieties of the short or middle-woolled breeds of sheep, and among them were the old Shropshires.
middle years n. the years in the middle of a person's life; middle age.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > person > middle-aged person > [noun] > middle age
middle lifec1330
middle agec1400
mid-agec1450
middle eldc1450
middle yearsc1450
meridian1607
a certain age1748
mid-life1818
middle term1839
c1450 J. Lydgate Minor Poems (1911) i. 20 The myspende tyme of all my mydle yeris, When lust with fors was fresh yn that sesoun.
a1577 G. Gascoigne Wks. (1587) Ep. A man of middle yeares who hath to his cost experimented the vanities of youth.
1642 D. Rogers Naaman 452 Whether in youth or middle yeares or old age.
1857 Southern Q. Rev. Feb. 373 His middle years were passed in communion with Christian divines and mystics.
1925 F. S. Fitzgerald Great Gatsby iii. 59 I had expected that Mr. Gatsby would be a florid and corpulent person in his middle years.
1985 P. Abrahams View from Coyaba iv. i. 216 For a person to change that much in her middle years is something special.
Middle Youth n. [after middle age n. 1; rare before late 20th cent.] the time of life between early adulthood and middle age; people of this age; frequently with allusion to the retention of interests, outlooks, etc., characteristic of younger people.
ΚΠ
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses iii. xvii. [Ithaca] 633 In middle youth he had often sat observing through a rondel of bossed glass..the thoroughfare without.
1987 Today 2 Mar. 18/1 That is the homogenised voice of the sophisticated, be-condommed Aids generation, the voice of the new middle-youth.
1997 Independent 11 Nov. 7 One is 35 and one is 33. They have been up all night dancing. After a few hours' sleep they go to a garden centre. They are living the life of the Middle Youth... But not everyone can have Middle Youth.
1998 Rec. Collector Apr. 5/2 Never mind Oasis remaking the Beatles. Or the arrival of ‘middle youth’ rock in the formidable form of the splendid Ultrasound.
b. In parasynthetic adjectives.
† middle-coloured adj. Obsolete rare
ΚΠ
1849 Florist 195 Satisfaction, a very good-shaped middle-coloured flower [sc. Pelargonium].
† middle-growthed adj. Obsolete rare
ΚΠ
1690 London Gaz. No. 2607/4 John Boone, aged 17, a straight Youth, middle growth'd.
middle-horned adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > group Ruminantia (sheep, goats, cows, etc.) > breeds of ox > [adjective] > of miscellaneous breeds of ox
belted1582
West Highland1761
Dunlop1793
middle-horned1796
East Friesian1856
Podolian1879
criollo1893
Simmental1906
beef-dairy1960
1796 W. Marshall Rural Econ. W. Eng. I. 240 In breed, they [sc. Devonshire cattle] are of the middle-horned Class.
1837 J. R. McCulloch Statist. Acct. Brit. Empire I. iii. i. 490 They may..be divided..into the four classes of middle-horned, long-horned, short-horned, and polled.
1989 S. G. Hall & J. Clutton-Brock 200 Years Brit. Farm Livestock iv. 61 The middle-horned cattle comprise the main group of the indigenous English breeds.
middle-priced adj.
ΚΠ
1959 R. Postgate Good Food Guide 148 The middle-priced wines are very good indeed.
1991 A. Blair More Tea at Miss Cranston's xi. 123 When it was down-to-earth shopping for the winter under-duds and working gear, good, plain, middle-priced Paisley's in Jamaica Street was the place.
† middle-statured adj. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1679 Trials of Wakeman 26 He was a middle-statured man.
1838 R. S. Surtees Jorrocks's Jaunts 320 A middle-aged, middle-statured man.
1874 Overland Monthly Oct. 362/1 Soon there stood before us a middle-statured, stout man.
middle-toned adj.
ΚΠ
1774 F. Gentleman Bell's Ed. Shakespeare's Plays (new ed.) II. 6 From the Bastard's situation, transactions, and expression, we are led to expect a bold, martial figure..with a full, middle-toned, spirited voice.
1834 J. H. Curtis Ess. Deaf & Dumb (ed. 2) v. 181 He can now hear a middle-toned voice.
1990 Daniel Smith: Catal. Artists' Materials (U.S.) July–Aug. 20/2 We have developed a gray gesso for the artist who wants to paint on a middle-toned ground.
† middle-witted adj. Obsolete rare
ΚΠ
1651 I. Walton Life of Wotton in H. Wotton Reliquiæ Wottonianæ (1672) sig. d4 Many middle-witted men (which yet may mean well).
1826 K. H. Digby Broad Stone of Honour: Morus 108 There is nothing so easy as to catch the phraseology which middle-witted sophists regard as the stamp of men of judgment.
C2. Compounds of the noun (in sense A. 2).
middle-deep adv. as deep as a person's middle; cf. mid-deep adv.
ΚΠ
1612 Proc. Eng. Colonie Virginia viii. 58 in J. Smith Map of Virginia By his owne example hee taught them to march middle deepe, more then a flight shot through this muddie frozen ooze.
1681 C. Cotton Wonders of Peake 55 The waters margent here goes down so steep, That at first step you chop in middle deep.
1856 N. Hawthorne Jrnl. 18 Sept. in Eng. Notebks. (1997) II. v. 154 The bathers found themselves hardly middle-deep.
1894 Field 1 Dec. 838/1 I sit comfortably, middle-deep under a writing table.
1930 W. Faulkner As I lay Dying 130 He was middle deep, so I knew he was on the ford,..leaning hard upstream.
† middle-high adv. Obsolete as high as a person's middle.
ΚΠ
1612 J. Smith Map of Virginia 16 Their women and children do continually keepe it with weeding, & when it is growne middle high, they hill it about like a hop-yard.
1651 E. Bland et al. Discov. New Brit. 6 The English..would not let them goe without a great heape of Roanoke middle high.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

middlev.

Brit. /ˈmɪdl/, U.S. /ˈmɪd(ə)l/
Forms: Middle English medle, 1600s midle, 1700s– middle.
Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: middle n.
Etymology: < middle n. Compare Middle Dutch middelen (Dutch middelen), Middle Low German middelen, Middle High German mitteln (German mitteln (archaic except in mathematical sense ‘to calculate the average or mean’; compare vermitteln), Old Icelandic miðla, Old Swedish medhla, midhla (Swedish medla), Danish midle.Earlier currency of the verb is perhaps implied by Old English midliend mediator (see -end suffix1); the prefixed form gemidlian is attested in Old English with the sense ‘to divide in half’.
†1. intransitive. To intervene. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > occurrence > [verb (intransitive)] > intervene or come in the course of
middlec1384
to come in between1566
intercura1575
intervenea1610
interpass1613
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) John vii. 14 The feeste day medlinge [L. mediante], or goynge bitwixe, Jhesu wente vp in to the temple.
†2. transitive. To take a middle view of. Also to middle it (derogatory): to adopt a middle course. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > judgement or decision > absence of prejudice > be unbiased [verb (intransitive)] > take a middle course
to middle it1648
steer1658
to have a foot in both camps1935
the mind > attention and judgement > judgement or decision > absence of prejudice > occupy the middle [verb (transitive)]
commoderate1590
mids1681
middle1747
1648 T. Manton Englands Spirituall Languishing 16 We content ourselves with a lukewarmnesse and a mambling of profession midling it between Christ and the world.
1747 S. Richardson Clarissa I. xxvii. 173 To middle the matter between both, it is pity, that the man they insist upon her accepting has not that sort of merit.
1748 S. Richardson Clarissa III. xxxviii. 198 But this way of putting it, is middling the matter between what I have learnt of my mamma's over-prudent, and your enlarged, notions.
†3. transitive. To find the middle point of; to bisect. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > two > division into two > divide in two [verb (transitive)] > divide into two equal parts
halvea1300
medie?c1425
mediate1543
midmeasure1578
dimidiate1623
bisect1646
halfen1677
middle1703
hemisect1885
medisect1886
1703 Moxon's Mech. Exercises (new ed.) 30 Draw the Line a b, bisect, or middle it.
†4. transitive. Nautical. To fold or double in the middle. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > other nautical operations > [verb (transitive)] > fold or double in middle
middle1804
1804 C. Romme Dictionnaire Marine Anglaise Middle a rope (to), replier un cordage à moitié sur lui-même.
1822 London Jrnl. Arts & Sci. 3 32 A length [of cable] must first be cut off..sufficiently long, that, when doubled and middled, it may reach from the upper part of the rudder-case to the heel of the stern-post.
1841 R. H. Dana Seaman's Man. 76 Get up a hawser, middle it, and take a slack clove-hitch at the centre.
c1860 H. Stuart Novices or Young Seaman's Catech. (rev. ed.) 27 How do you make a reef point? By taking five foxes and middling them.
1882 G. S. Nares Seamanship (ed. 6) 124 The sail is middled and hauled taut out.
1883 Man. Seamanship for Boys' Training Ships Royal Navy 6 A hammock is slung by clews..24 nettles to each clew; the nettles are middled & served in the centre to form an eye.
†5. transitive. slang. To fool, cheat. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > deceit, deception, trickery > cheating, fraud > treat fraudulently, cheat [verb (transitive)]
deceivec1330
defraud1362
falsec1374
abuse?a1439
fraud1563
visure1570
cozen1583
coney-catch1592
to fetch in1592
cheat1597
sell1607
mountebanka1616
dabc1616
nigglea1625
to put it on1625
shuffle1627
cuckold1644
to put a cheat on1649
tonya1652
fourbe1654
imposturea1659
impose1662
slur1664
knap1665
to pass upon (also on)1673
snub1694
ferret1699
nab1706
shool1745
humbug1750
gag1777
gudgeon1787
kid1811
bronze1817
honeyfuggle1829
Yankee1837
middle1863
fuck1866
fake1867
skunk1867
dead-beat1888
gold-brick1893
slicker1897
screw1900
to play it1901
to do in1906
game1907
gaff1934
scalp1939
sucker1939
sheg1943
swizz1961
butt-fuck1979
1863 E. Farmer Scrap Bk. (ed. 3) 53 For I've been humbugged, middled, got the best on.
6.
a. transitive. Association Football. To pass (the ball) from one of the wings to the middle of the field in front of the goal; to centre. Occasionally intransitive. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > football > association football > play association football [verb (transitive)] > actions to ball
smother1845
handle1869
middle1869
fist1909
volley1909
sidefoot1913
clear1947
convert1950
trap1950
square1972
welly1986
1869 Bell's Life in London 6 Feb. 6/4 Lieut Morris..‘middled’ the ball.
1871 Field 28 Jan. 61/3 The ball which had been previously middled by A. M. Jones, was driven through the goal.
1902 Field 1 Mar. 314/1 Corbett made a run and middled.
1985 D. Lamming Who's Who of Grimsby Town AFC 26/1 Noted for accuracy in middling the ball, in corner taking..and as an explosive shot.
b. transitive. More generally: to place in the middle; spec. to place (a ship) midway between its anchors.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > central condition or position > mark or be the centre of [verb (transitive)] > place or fix in the centre > in technical applications
centre1688
middle1883
1883 W. H. Richards Textbk. Mil. Topogr. (1888) 119 All the micrometers should be kept nearly ‘middled’, or half way through their nuts.
1898 Chambers's Jrnl. Mar. 188 A grandfather's clock with a bullet-hole nicely middled in its case.
1899 Daily News 25 July 6/6 We started to heave in on the starboard cable in order to middle the ship between her anchors.
1923 H.M.S.O. Man. Seamanship II. 159 The port anchor is let go first and the ship middled by hauling in the wire aft.
†c. intransitive. To fit into the middle. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
1889 P. N. Hasluck Model Engineer's Handybk. 67 If these holes do not exactly middle, a small round file can be used to draw the hole over as required.
7. transitive. Sport. To strike (a ball) or make (a stroke) with the middle of the bat or racket; (Cricket) to strike a ball from (a bowler) in this manner.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > batting > bat [verb (transitive)] > hit > hit with specific stroke
take1578
stop1744
nip1752
block1772
drive1773
cut1816
draw1816
tip1816
poke1836
spoon1836
mow1844
to put up1845
smother1845
sky1849
crump1850
to pick up1851
pull1851
skyrocket1851
swipe1851
to put down1860
to get away1868
smite1868
snick1871
lift1874
crack1882
smack1882
off-drive1888
snip1890
leg1892
push1893
hook1896
flick1897
on-drive1897
chop1898
glance1898
straight drive1898
cart1903
edge1904
tonk1910
sweep1920
mishook1934
middle1954
square-drive1954
tickle1963
square-cut1976
slash1977
splice1982
paddle1986
1954 J. H. Fingleton Ashes crown Year xi. 112 Hutton was in grand form. He middled Lindwall with confidence.
1955 I. Peebles Ashes iii. 29 The batsman started by showing every sign of good form..middling his strokes with ominous regularity.
1955 K. R. Miller & R. S. Whitington Cricket Typhoon x. 189 May began to middle the ball.
1963 Times 19 Apr. 3/7 Miss Truman was usually crisp and decisive, middling the ball much more easily than she did last week.
1986 Squash World July–Aug. 18/2 Its larger head size will be welcomed by those players who encounter problems in middling those difficult volleys.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.eOEv.c1384
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