Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Middle \Mid"dle\, a. [OE. middel, AS. middel; akin to D. middel,
OHG. muttil, G. mittel. ????. See {Mid}, a.]
1. Equally distant from the extreme either of a number of
things or of one thing; mean; medial; as, the middle house
in a row; a middle rank or station in life; flowers of
middle summer; men of middle age.
2. Intermediate; intervening.
Will, seeking good, finds many middle ends. --Sir J.
Davies.
Note: Middle is sometimes used in the formation of
selfexplaining compounds; as, middle-sized,
middle-witted.
{Middle Ages}, the period of time intervening between the
decline of the Roman Empire and the revival of letters.
Hallam regards it as beginning with the sixth and ending
with the fifteenth century.
{Middle class}, in England, people who have an intermediate
position between the aristocracy and the artisan class. It
includes professional men, bankers, merchants, and small
landed proprietors
The middle-class electorate of Great Britain. --M.
Arnold.
{Middle distance}. (Paint.) See {Middle-ground}.
{Middle English}. See {English}, n., 2.
{Middle Kingdom}, China.
{Middle oil} (Chem.), that part of the distillate obtained
from coal tar which passes over between 170[deg] and
230[deg] Centigrade; -- distinguished from the light, and
the heavy or dead, oil.
{Middle passage}, in the slave trade, that part of the
Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the West Indies.
{Middle post}. (Arch.) Same as {King-post}.
{Middle States}, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and
Delaware; which, at the time of the formation of the
Union, occupied a middle position between the Eastern
States (or New England) and the Southern States. [U.S.]
{Middle term} (Logic), that term of a syllogism with which
the two extremes are separately compared, and by means of
which they are brought together in the conclusion.
--Brande.
{Middle tint} (Paint.), a subdued or neutral tint.
--Fairholt.
{Middle voice}. (Gram.) See under {Voice}.
{Middle watch}, the period from midnight to four A. M.; also,
the men on watch during that time. --Ham. Nav. Encyc.
{Middle weight}, a pugilist, boxer, or wrestler classed as of
medium weight, i. e., over 140 and not over 160 lbs., in
distinction from those classed as {light weights}, {heavy
weights}, etc.
Middle \Mid"dle\, n. [AS. middel. See {Middle}, a.]
The point or part equally distant from the extremities or
exterior limits, as of a line, a surface, or a solid; an
intervening point or part in space, time, or order of series;
the midst; central portion; specif., the waist. --Chaucer.
``The middle of the land.'' --Judg. ix. 37.
In this, as in most questions of state, there is a
middle. --Burke.
Syn: See {Midst}.
Source : WordNet®
middle
adj 1: being neither at the beginning nor at the end in a series;
"adolescence is an awkward in-between age"; "in a
mediate position"; "the middle point on a line" [syn:
{in-between}, {mediate}]
2: equally distant from the extremes [syn: {center(a)}, {halfway},
{middle(a)}, {midway}]
3: of a stage in the development of a language or literature
between earlier and later stages; "Middle English is the
English language from about 1100 to 1500"; "Middle Gaelic"
[ant: {late}, {early}]
4: between an earlier and a later period of time; "in the
middle years"; "in his middle thirties" [ant: {late}, {early}]
middle
v : put in the middle
middle
n 1: an area that is approximately central within some larger
region; "it is in the center of town"; "they ran forward
into the heart of the struggle"; "they were in the eye
of the storm" [syn: {center}, {centre}, {heart}, {eye}]
2: an intermediate part or section; "A whole is that which has
beginning, middle, and end"- Aristotle [ant: {end}, {beginning}]
3: the middle area of the human torso (usually in front);
"young American women believe that a bare midriff is
fashionable" [syn: {midriff}, {midsection}]
4: time between the beginning and the end of a temporal period;
"the middle of the war"; "rain during the middle of April"
[ant: {end}, {beginning}]