middle
nounadjectiveverbtop 1 000 in film dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈmɪdl̩//
- United Kingdom/[ˈmɪ.dəɫ]/
- United Kingdom/[ˈmɪ.dʊ]/
- /[ˈmɨdl̩]/
A centre, midpoint.
noun
- 1
A centre, midpoint.
The middle of a circle is the point which has the same distance to every point of circle.
- 2
The part between the beginning and the end.
I woke up in the middle of the night.
In the middle of the marathon, David collapsed from fatigue.
Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.
- 3
The middle stump.
- 4
The central part of a human body; the waist.
If I have a diet plan and stick to it, it is easy for me to have control over my middle.
- 5
The middle voice.
- 6
the center of the political spectrum.
As part of his successful re-election strategy, Clinton began governing from the middle.
- 7
An essay on social or literary issues in a newspaper or magazine, originally placed between the leading articles and the reviews.
‘Did you see the Spec. had a middle on “Rural Tenacities” last week. That was all Huckley.’
Etymology
From Middle English myddel, middel, from Old English middel (“middle, centre, waist”), from Proto-Germanic *midlą, *midilą, *medalą (“middle”), a diminutive of Proto-Germanic *midjō (“middle, midst”) (compare *midjaz (“mid, middle”, adjective)), from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“between, in the middle, middle”). Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Middel (“middle”), West Frisian mul (“middle”), Dutch middel (“means; medicine, cure”), German mittel (“middle”, adjective), Mittel (“means; medicament, remedy”, noun), Luxembourgish Mëttel (“means, method; medicament”), Vilamovian mytuł (“middle”), Yiddish מיטל (mitl, “middle”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk middel (“means”), Icelandic meðal (“average; means, medicine”), Swedish medel (“average, mean, middle”). See also mid.
adjective
- 1
Located in the middle; in between.
the middle point
middle name, Middle English, Middle Ages
- 2
Central.
- 3
Pertaining to the middle voice.
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo take a middle view of.
And now, to middle the matter between both, it is pity, that the man they favour has not that sort of merit which a person of a mind so delicate as that of Miss Harlowe might reasonably expect in a husband.
- 2
obsoleteTo double (a rope) into two equal portions; to fold in the middle.
- 3
To strike (the ball) with the middle portion of the face of the bat.
Forms
- plural
- middles
- superlative
- middlemost, middlest
- past tense
- middled
- past participle
- middled
- present participle
- middling
- third person singular
- middles