pl 
t 
middle 
I. a. 1. Equally distant from the ex- 
tremes or limits; mean; middling: as, the 
middle point of a line; the middle time of life. 
I wyll go the middtll wey, 
And write a boke bytwene the twey. 
Bower, C'onf. Aniant., Prol. 
These are Rowers 
of middle summer, nnd, I think, they are given 
To men uf middle age. Snak., W. T., iv. 4. 106. 
That middle course to steer, 
To cowardice and craft so dear. 
Scott, Bokeby, 1. 22. 
2. Intervening; intermediate. 
A matter duly prepared, and made ready beforehand, 
and now lying in a middle state, between Its first rudi- 
ments and decline. Bacon, Physical Fables, vii., Expl. 
Will, seeking good, finds many middle ends. 
Sir J. liitHfu. Immortal, of the Soul, { 30. 
3. In gram. : (a) Intermediate between active 
and passive: applied to a body of verb-forms 
of which the office is more or less distinctly re- 
flexive, or denotes the subject as actingon orfor 
or with reference to itself, often answering to 
an English intransitive verb : as, middle voice, 
middle ending, middle tense. Such forms, distin- 
guished by their endings, belonged to the original Indo- 
European verb, and are retained by some of the extant lan- 
guages, especially .Sanskrit and Greek. In Greek the mid- 
dle voice (i) M<ri) 6ta<>m, ficfforqf) serves also as passive, 
except In the future and aorlst (ft) Intermediate be- 
tween smooth (uuaspirated) and rough (aspi- 
rated) : as, a middle (medial) mute. See mute 1 , 
it Middle ages. See age. Middle books*, a course of 
study intermediate between the Elements of Euclid and 
the Almagest of Ptolemy. Middle C. See C. Middle 
chest. SeeeAwti. Middle Class, that class of the peo- 
le which is socially and conventionally intermediate be- 
ween the aristocratic class, or nobility, and the laboring 
class; the untltled community of well-born or wealthy 
people, made up of landed proprietors, professional men, 
and merchants: in Great Britain commonly subdivided 
Into upper and lower middle classes. In the United States 
no class-distinction of this nature exists. 
He [Pitt] looked for support not . . . to a strong aristo- 
cratical connection, not . . . to the personal favour of the 
sovereign, but to the middle dan of Englishmen. 
Maeaulay, William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. 
Middle distance. See distance. Middle English, See 
English. 2. Middle genus. See genus. Middle Greek. 
See Greek, '2. Middle ground, (a) In painting, etc., same 
as middle distance, (ft) Naut., a shallow place, as a bank 
or bar. Middle Latin, latitude, meatus, medias- 
tinum. etc. See the nouns. Middle part or voice, 
in music, a part or voice that lies in the middle of the 
harmony, as the alto and tenor In ordinary music. Mid- 
dle passage, that part of the middle Atlantic which lies 
between the West Indies and the west coast of the con- 
tinent of Africa : as, the horrors of the middle passage (re- 
ferring in the slave-trade). Middle post, in arch., same as 
king-post. Middle spaces, in printing, the spaces most 
used in the composition of type the three-em (one third) 
and the four-em (one fourth) of the body. Middle States, 
the States which originally formed the middle part of the 
United States, intermediate between New England and 
the Southern States, namely New York. New Jersey, Penn- 
sylvania, and Delaware. Middle stitching. Same as 
mnnlr't-team, 1. Middle term, that term of a syllogism 
which appears twice in thepremises, but is eliminated from 
the conclusion. Also called mean term. 
II. n. 1. The point or part equally distant from 
the extremities, limits, or extremes ; a mean. 
See, there come people down by the middle of the land. 
Judges iv S7. 
Beauty no other thing is then a beame 
Klasht out between the middle and extreme. 
Herriclc, Definition of Beauty. 
It Is a point of difficulty to choose an exact middle be- 
tween two 111 extremes. 
Swift, Sentiments of a Ch. of Eng. Man, ii. 
2. Specifically, the middle part of the human 
body; the waist. 
Mir myddel smal, hire armes longe and sklendre. 
Chaucer, Merchant's Tale, L S58. 
Another time [he] was bogged up to the middle In the 
slough of Lochend. Scott, Guy Uannering, viii. 
3. An intervening point or part in space, time, 
or arrangement ; something intermediate. 
I ... with capacious mitid 
Conslder'd all things visible in heaven, 
Or earth, or middle. Milton, P. L., tx. 60S. 
4. In logic, same as middle term. 5. In gram., 
same as middla roirr. See I., 3 __ Fallacy of no 
middle, of undistributed middle, of unreal middle. 
See fallacy. The principle of excluded middle or 
third, one of the properties of negation, according to 
which there is no individual that is not Included either 
under any given tenn or under its negative. It may also 
be stated by saying that the negative of the negative of any 
term is included under that term. The converse state- 
ment that the negative of the negative of any term in- 
cludes that term is the principle of contradiction. These 
two principles, taken together, define negation. 
And since no proposition can be at once true and false 
while Us terms remain the same, but must be either true 
or false, undtT alternative aspects, the Principle of the Ex- 
cluded Middle, whii'h is simply the assertion of such an 
alternative, is seen to be nothing more than the Principle 
of Equivalence. 
<;. II. I.,, let, Probs. of Life and Mind. II ii i It 
= 8yn. 1. Center, Mid*, Middle. Center Is a precise word, 
ordinarily applied to circular, globular, or regular bodies : 
as, the center of a circle, globe. Held ; but It is used wher- 
ever a similar exactness appears to exist : as, the center of a 
crowd. Mill ft regards the person or thing as enveloped or 
surrounded on all sides especially by that which Is close 
upon him or It, thick or dense : as, in the midtt of the forest, 
the waves, troubles, one's thoughts. Except as thus modi- 
fied by the idea of envelopment or close environment, the 
old Idea of midtt as meaning the middle point (see Gen. L 
6; Josh. vii. 23; 1 KL xxil. 35) Is quite obsolete. Midtt 
Is very often used abstractly or figuratively, center rarely, 
middle never. Middle is often applied to extent in only 
one direction : as, the middle of the street, of a block of 
houses, of a string; It Is often less precise than center: 
compare the center and the middle of a room. 
The pride, the market-place, the crown 
And center of the potter's trade. 
Longfellow, Keramos, L M. 
Jesus himself stood In the midtt of them. 
Luke xxiv. 3t). 
In the dead vast and middle of the night. 
Shale., Hamlet, L 2. 198. 
middle (mid'l), /. /. ; pret. and pp. middled, pnr. 
middling. [< ME. midlen, < AS.miillian (=D. 
MLG. iiiidiifim G. mini In = lee\. midhla = 
Sw. media), mediate, < middel, middle: see mid- 
dle, M.] 1. To set or place in the middle. Spe- 
cifically 2. In foot-ball, to kick or drive (the 
ball) into the middle, so that it may be kicked 
through the goal. [Eng.] 3. To balance or 
compromise. Davien. 
This way of putting It is middling the matter between 
what I have learned of my mother's over -prudent and your 
enlarged notions. Richardson, Clarissa Harlowe, III. 214. 
4. To ascertain or mark the middle of (as of 
a line), by doubling or otherwise; fold in the 
middle; double, as a rope. 
The line you dragged in. when middled, will serve me 
to lower you down with. W. C. Ruttell, Death Ship, xlvi. 
middle-aged (mid'1-ajd), a. Having lived to 
the middle of the ordinary age of man. By a 
middle-aged man is generally understood a man 
from the age of forty to fifty. 
The weak and young Whigs have become middle-aged. 
Bladcujood's May., Dec., 1821, p. 753. 
middle-class (mid'1-klas), n. Of, pertaining 
to, or included in the middle class. See mid- 
dle class, under middle, a. 
Commercial members of Parliament and other middle- 
dam potentates. M. Arnold, Culture and Anarchy, ill. 
Middle-Class examinations, in Great Britain, annual 
examinations held by a university for persons who are not 
members, ranging from primary to university studies. 
Certificates of efficiency are granted to the successful can- 
didates, and Oxford grants the diploma of associate of arts 
(A. A. ) to those who pass the senior examination. Middle- 
class schools, in Great Britain, schools established for 
the higher education of the middle classes, intermediate 
between primary schools and the great public schools. 
middle-earth (mid'1-erth), . [< late ME. 
myddyl erthe, medijl erthe, etc., an accom. form, 
as if < middle + earth, of ME. middelerd, where 
the second element is not earth but erd, a re- 
gion, abode: see middelerd, middenerd, earth 1 . ~\ 
The earth regarded as placed midway between 
heaven and hell (the upper and the lower earth 
or world). 
And had oon the feyrest orchard 
That was yn alle thys myddyll-erd. 
MS. Cantab. Ft 1L 88, 129. (HaUiveU } 
I In-ill, that art the goostU stoon 
Of al hull chirche In myddil erthe. 
Uymm to Virgin, etc. (E. E. T. .\ p. IB. 
That maid is born of middle earth, 
And may of man be won ; 
Though there have glided, since her birth, 
Five hundred years and one. 
Scott, Bridal of Triermaln, t. 9. 
middleman (mid '1- man), n.; pi. middlemen 
(-men). [= MLG. middelmaii = G. mittelmann 
(also mittflsmann); as middle + man.'] 1. One 
who acts as an intermediary between others 
in any matter; an intermediate lessee, con- 
tractor, negotiator, trader, broker, etc. ; specif- 
ically, one who buys merchandise in bulk to 
sell it in smaller quantities to other traders 
or to retail dealers; in Ireland, a lessee of a 
tract of land who sublets it in parcels at an ad- 
vanced rate to actual tenants or occupiers; more 
generally, any one who acts as a buyer and 
seller, or undertaker for profit, between pro- 
ducers or principals and consumers, users, or 
executants. 
An insurance broker is one who acts as a middleman 
between the owners of ships and the underwriters who 
insure them in shares. Jevmt, Money, p. 261. 
Thus we see that the pedlar was the original distributor 
of the produce of the country the primitive middleman, 
as well as the prime mover in extending the markets of 
particular localities, or for particular commodities. 
Mayhftc, London Labour and London Poor, I. 415. 
The lands of Bosnia and Herzegovina have been strangely 
handed over to an Austrian middleman, to he administered 
by him in the name of his master the Turk. 
E. A. freeman, Amer. I.eets., p. 443. 
middlingly 
2. A man of intermediate rank ; a commoner. 
The great parliamentary miildleman. DltnuK. 
3. In the tiilicrieg, a planter. 4. In negro 
minstrelsy, the man who sits in the middle of 
the semicircle of performers during the opening 
part of the entertainment, and leads the dia- 
logue between songs. [Properly middle-man.'} 
middlemost (inid'l-most), a. sujierl. [< middle 
+ -niiHst.] Being in the middle, or nearest the 
middle; midmost. 
Truth hath a mysterious name, ... It consists of three 
letters, the first and the last and the middlemott of the 
Hebrew letters. Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1886), IL 6. 
At the end of a range of trees, I saw three figures seated 
on a bank of moss. . . . The jitutdlemoet, whose name wai 
Solitude, sat with her arms across each other. 
SteeU, Spectator, No. 614. 
middler (mid'ler), >i. | = I >. middelaar = MLG. 
middeler = Gi. mittler = 8vr. met/tare = Dan. mid- 
ler; as middle + -er 1 .] If. An intermediary; 
a mediator. 
Christ Is called a corner stone, because be, being here 
mediatour ortniddekrbetweneOod and men(l Tim. ii. 61 
coupleth In hym the Jewes and the Gentiles, and jolneth 
them together. Bible qf 1661, note on Is*, xxviii. 10. 
2. A member of the middle class in a seminary 
which has three classes senior, middle, and 
junior as in theological seminaries. [U. 8.] 
Five seniors, five middlers, and seven Juniors have al- 
ready signed the constitution. 
The Congregationalitt, April 1, 1880. 
middle-rate (mid'1-rat), a. Mediocre. 
A very middle-rate poet. Boruxll, Johnson, L 226. 
middle-sized (mid'1-sizd), a. 1. Half-sized. 
2. Being of middle or average size. 
We should be pleased that things are so, 
Who do for nothing see the shew. 
And, uiiddlffizd, can pass between 
Life's hubbub, safe because unseen. 
Green, The Spleen. 
middle-spear (mid'1-sper), . The upright 
beam that takes the two leaves of a barn-door. 
HalliKcll. [Prov. Eng.] 
middle-stead (mid'1-sted), . A threshing- 
floor (which is generally in the middle of a 
barn). Halliwell. [Prov. Bug.] 
middle-weight (mid'1-wat), n. In snorting, a 
boxer or jockey of intermediate weight; one 
who is between light-weight and heavy-weight, 
middling (mid'ling), a. and . [< middle + 
-in// 2 .] I. a. 1. Medium in rank, condition, or 
degree; intermediate; hence, only medium; 
neither good nor bad; neither one thing nor 
the other: as, a fruit of middling quality. 
But miildlimj folk, who their abiding make 
Between these two, of either guise partake. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, IL, The Colonies. 
A certain middling thing, between a fool and a madman. 
B. Jomon, Bartholomew Fair, IL 1. 
It's middling classes such as Is in a middling way like 
as is the best friends to me. 
Mayhem, London Labour and London Poor, II. 640. 
2. Not in good health, yet not very ill ; also, in 
Scotland, in fairly good health. [Rural.] 
The children 's miildlin' Doctor Merrill ses he thinks 
they've got past the wust on 't. 
U. B. Stmct, Oldtown, p. 53St. 
3. Of medium quality: a specific commercial 
grade of flour, pork, etc. See fair to middling, 
under /aii-l. Middling gossip, a go-between. 
Or what do yon say unto a middling ooteip, 
To bring you ay together at her lodging? 
n. Jonton, Devil is an Ass. L 3. 
II. ". 1. The part of a gun-stock between 
the grasp and the tail-pipe or ramrod-thimble. 
E. II. Knight. 2. That part of a hog which lies 
between the ham and the shoulder; a side of 
bacon. [Western and southern U. 8.] 3. pi. 
In milling, the parts of a kernel of grain next 
the skin of the berry, largely composed of glu- 
ten and considered the most nutritious part. 
In the older methods of milling this was ground as fine as 
possible together with the starchy part and the bran, and 
then the whole was bolted to separate the bran. By the 
newer high-milling methods, the middlings are passed 
through a purifying machine and reground, forming a very 
pure flour, with larger and more uniform grannies than 
that from the first grinding. 
4. i>l. The coarser particles resulting from mill- 
ing, intermingled with a certain quantity of bran 
and foreign matters, used as feed for farm stock ; 
canaille. 
middling (mid'ling), adr. [< middling, .] Tol- 
erably; moderately. [Chiefly colloq.] 
Wal, I don't jedge him nor nobody. . . . Dont none on 
us do more than middlin' well. 
//. B. Stove, Oldtown, p. SI. 
He has been a middling good governor. 
The American, vm. 227. 
middlingly (mid'ling-li). adr. Passably: tol- 
ernlilv. 
