4 definitions found From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]: Middle \Mid"dle\, noun [AS. middel. See {Middle}, adjective] 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}. From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]: Middle \Mid"dle\ (m[i^]d"d'l), adjective [OE. middel, AS. middel; akin to D. middel, OHG. muttil, G. mittel. [root]271. 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 self-explaining 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}, noun, 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 oil}, and the {heavy oil} 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. From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]: middle adjective 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}] noun 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}] verb: put in the middle From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]: 118 Moby Thesaurus words for "middle": active, active voice, amidships, arbitrational, arbitrative, average, axial, axis, balance, bisect, center, center of action, center of gravity, center on, center round, centermost, central, centralize, centralized, centric, centroid, centroidal, centrosymmetric, centrum, coming between, concentrated, core, dead center, double, epicenter, equatorial, equidistant, fold, generality, geocentric, going between, golden mean, halfway, happy medium, heart, hub, intercessional, intercessory, intercurrent, interior, interjacent, interlocutory, intermedial, intermediary, intermediate, intermediatory, intervenient, intervening, interventional, juste-milieu, kernel, key, marrow, mean, medial, median, mediating, mediative, mediatorial, mediatory, medio-passive, mediocre, mediocrity, mediterranean, medium, medulla, mesial, mesne, metacenter, mezzo, mid, middle course, middle ground, middle point, middle position, middle state, middle voice, middle-of-the-road, middlemost, middling, midland, midmost, midpoint, midriff, midships, midst, midway, nave, navel, norm, normal, nub, nuclear, nucleus, omphalic, omphalos, pacificatory, par, passive, passive voice, pith, pivot, pivotal, reflexive, rule, run, stomach, storm center, umbilical, umbilicus, via media, voice, waist

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