medium

noun

1. 1

   The material of the surrounding environment, e.g. solid, liquid, gas, vacuum, or a specific substance such as a solvent.

2. 2

   The materials or empty space through which signals, waves, or forces pass.

   VVhether any other Liquours, being made Mediums, cauſe a Diuerſity of Sound from Water, it may bee tried: […]

   He’s old and jealous, apt for ſuſpitions, ’gainſt which Tyrants ears Are never clos’d. The Prince is young, Fierce, and ambitious, I muſt bring together All theſe extreams, and then remove all Mediums, That each may be the others object.

3. 3

   A format for communicating or presenting information.

   Too often writing—in the broadest sense—is treated as a communicational medium where the subjects of that communication are constituted prior to the writing, where the objects of that communication are also constituted prior to that writing, and where the task of writing is seen as transparently mediating between already pregiven subjects, pregiven objects, and a preconstituted mise en scène.

4. 4

   A nutrient substance, commonly a solution or solid, for the growth of cells in vitro.

   In some instances one can take advantage of differential carbohydrate fermentation capabilities of microorganisms by incorporating one or more carbohydrates in the medium along with a suitable pH indicator. Such media are called differential media (e.g., eosin methylene blue or MacConkey agar) and are commonly used to isolate enteric bacilli.

5. 5

   A substance, structure, or environment in which living organisms subsist, grow or are cultured.

   The density of the living medium of fishes exerts upon them a mechanical influence; they are, so to say, balanced in water, free to proceed in all planes of direction...

6. 6

   A means, channel, agency or go-between through which communication, commerce, etc is conveyed or carried on, or by which an aim is achieved.

   Cable TV is an inexpensive advertising medium.

   His loyalty to the English was doubtful and wavering, and his opposition to Post's journey was probably due to fears that his own importance as a medium between the Ohio Indians and the English would be diminished by the former's success.

7. 7

   The materials used to finish a workpiece using a mass finishing or abrasive blasting process.

8. 8

   A liquid base which carries pigment in paint.

9. 9

   A means of expression, in the arts, such as a material (oil, pastel, clay, etc) or method or style (expressionism, jazz, etc).

   Acrylics, oils, charcoal, and gouache are all mediums I used in my painting.

   Heretofore in following the course, the student has been confined to black and white in the medium of charcoal, pen and ink or pencil. The first introduction to color is by means of the Still Life painting class.

   It was the woodcut, however, that emerged as the favorite graphic medium of Expressionism. Rejecting the almost limitless pictorial possibilities of lithography, which had dominated printmaking during the nineteenth century, […]

   So we get a people in rebellion against a dominant majority, but forced to rebel secretly, to sublimate, as the psychologist would put it — to express themselves culturally through the medium of jaz , and linguistically through a code, a jargon ...

10. 10

    The mean or middle term of a syllogism, that by which the extremes are brought into connection.

11. 11

    Someone who conveys information from the spirit world.

    The hall was not too well lit and dark shadows lurked in the corners. The medium still bent her head as if her ears were straining.

12. 12

    A middle place or degree.

    a happy medium

    [T]he Just Medium of This Case lies betwixt the Pride, and the Abjection of the Two Extreams.

    Her height was pretty, […] her figure particularly graceful; her size a most becoming medium, between fat and thin, […]

    In search of the principle on which joints ought to be roasted, to be roasted enough, and not too much, I myself referred to the Cookery Book,[…]. But the principle always failed us by some curious fatality, and we never could hit any medium between redness and cinders.

13. 13

    datedAn average; sometimes the mathematical mean.

    The number of Britiſh ſhips annually arriving in our ports vvas reduced to 1756 ſail, containing 92.559 tons, on a medium of the ſix years vvar, compared vvith the ſix years of peace preceding it.

14. 14

    Anything of a middle rank or position.

    Cavalry […] is divided into mediums, heavies, and light cavalry.

noun

1. 1

   One of several common sizes to which an item may be manufactured, smaller than a large but larger than a small.

2. 2

   An item labelled or denoted as being that size.

3. 3

   One who fits an item of that size.

4. 4

   datedA half-pint serving of Guinness (or other stout in some regions).

adjective

1. 1

   obsoleteArithmetically average.

2. 2

   Of intermediate size, degree, amount etc.

3. 3

   Of meat, cooked to a point greater than rare but less than well done; typically, so the meat is still red in the centre.

4. 4

   That is medium (the manufactured size).

adverb

1. 1

   To a medium extent.

Forms

plural

media, mediums