midst
nounprepositioncommon in dialogue
- //mɪdst//
- /[mɪdst]/
- /[mɪtst]/
A place in the middle of something; may be used of a literal or metaphorical location.
noun
- 1
A place in the middle of something; may be used of a literal or metaphorical location.
Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.
At dawn, in the midst of a mist that is both literal and the unformed shifting of thought, he encounters a young fox pup playfully shaking a bone.
As he said in "I Have a Dream," the Negro "lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity."
Etymology
From Middle English middes, midst, myddest (“middle”), from Old English midde, reshaped in Middle English phrases like in middes (“in the middle”) by analogy with adverbs in -(e)s; also compare Old English on middan, tōmiddes. Forms in -(e)st are probably due to influence of superlatives.
preposition
- 1
rareAmong, in the middle of; amidst.
Mildred comes home from work early only to discover her husband, Robert, midst of a lewd affair with their neighbor, Gladys.
She puts the period often from his place ; And 'midst the sentence so her accent breaks
Forms
- plural
- midsts
midst · A place in the middle of something; may be used of a literal or metaphorical location.
midtown · The part of a city between uptown and downtown.midway · The middle; the midst.Midway · An atoll in the North Pacific the site of a major World War…