middling


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Related to middling: fair to middling, ebbing

mid·dling

 (mĭd′lĭng, -lĭn)
adj.
1. Of medium size, position, or quality.
2. Mediocre. See Synonyms at average.
n.
1. Chiefly Southern US
a. often middlings Pork or bacon cut from between the ham and shoulder of a pig.
b. Salt pork. Also called middling meat.
2. middlings Any of various products, such as partially refined petroleum or ore, that are intermediate in quality, size, price, or grade.
3. middlings(used with a sing. or pl. verb) Coarsely ground wheat mixed with bran.
adv. Informal
Fairly; moderately: "a middling nice cake" (Hatfield MA Valley Advocate).
[Probably Middle English midlin : mid, mid; see mid1 + -ling, having a quality; see -ling1.]
mid′dling·ly adv.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

middling

(ˈmɪdlɪŋ)
adj
mediocre in quality, size, etc; neither good nor bad, esp in health (often in the phrase fair to middling)
adv
informal moderately: middling well.
[C15 (northern English and Scottish): from mid1 + -ling2]
ˈmiddlingly adv
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

mid•dling

(ˈmɪd lɪŋ)

adj.
1. medium, moderate, or average in size, quantity, or quality.
2. mediocre; ordinary; commonplace; pedestrian.
3. Older Use. in fairly good health.
adv.
4. moderately; fairly.
n.
5. middlings,
a. any of various products or commodities of intermediate quality, grade, size, etc.
b. coarser particles of ground wheat mingled with bran.
[1425–75; late Middle English (Scots)]
mid′dling•ly, adv.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.middling - any commodity of intermediate quality or size (especially when coarse particles of ground wheat are mixed with bran)
commodity, trade good, good - articles of commerce
Adj.1.middling - lacking exceptional quality or ability; "a novel of average merit"; "only a fair performance of the sonata"; "in fair health"; "the caliber of the students has gone from mediocre to above average"; "the performance was middling at best"
mediocre, average, fair
ordinary - not exceptional in any way especially in quality or ability or size or degree; "ordinary everyday objects"; "ordinary decency"; "an ordinary day"; "an ordinary wine"
Adv.1.middling - to a moderately sufficient extent or degree; "pretty big"; "pretty bad"; "jolly decent of him"; "the shoes are priced reasonably"; "he is fairly clever with computers"
fairly, jolly, moderately, passably, pretty, reasonably, somewhat
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

middling

adjective
1. mediocre, all right, indifferent, so-so (informal), unremarkable, tolerable, run-of-the-mill, passable, serviceable, unexceptional, half-pie (N.Z. informal), O.K. or okay (informal) They enjoyed only middling success until 1963.
2. moderate, medium, average, fair, ordinary, modest, adequate, bog-standard (Brit. & Irish slang) a man of middling height
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002
Translations
مُتَوَسِّط
střední
gennemsnitmiddel-
meîal-, miîlungs

middling

[ˈmɪdlɪŋ]
A. ADJ → mediano (pej) → regular
"how are you?" - "middling" → -¿qué tal estás? -regular
see also fair 1 A2
B. ADV middling good → medianamente bueno, regular
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

middling

[ˈmɪdlɪŋ] adj → moyen(ne)
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

middling

adj → mittelmäßig; (of size) → mittlere(r, s); how are you? — middling → wie geht es dir? — mittelprächtig (inf) → or einigermaßen; what was the weather like? — middling → wie war das Wetter? — durchwachsen or so lala (inf)
adv (inf: = fairly) middling rich → ziemlich reich
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

middling

[ˈmɪdlɪŋ] adj → così così, medio/a
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

middle

(ˈmidl) noun
1. the central point or part. the middle of a circle.
2. the central area of the body; the waist. You're getting rather fat round your middle.
adjective
equally distant from both ends. the middle seat in a row.
ˈmiddling adjective
average. He's neither tall nor short, but of middling height.
middle age
the years between youth and old age. She is well into middle age.
ˌmiddle-ˈaged adjective
Middle Ages (with the)
the time between the end of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance.
Middle East (with the)
Egypt and the countries of Asia west of Pakistan.
ˈmiddleman (-mӕn) noun
a dealer who buys goods from the person who makes or grows them, and sells them to shopkeepers or to the public; a wholesaler. You can save money by buying direct from the factory and cutting out the middleman.
be in the middle of (doing) something
to be busily occupied doing something. Please excuse my appearance. I was in the middle of washing my hair.
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.
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References in classic literature ?
The middle state is therefore best, as being least liable to those seditions and insurrections which disturb the community; and for the same reason extensive governments are least liable to these inconveniences; for there those in a middle state are very numerous, whereas in small ones it is easy to pass to the two extremes, so as hardly to have any in a medium remaining, but the one half rich, the other poor: and from the same principle it is that democracies are more firmly established and of longer continuance than oligarchies; but even in those when there is a want of a proper number of men of middling fortune, the poor extend their power too far, abuses arise, and the government is soon at an end.
Those who made conquests in Greece, having all of them an eye to the respective forms of government in their own cities, established either democracies or oligarchies, not considering what was serviceable to the state, but what was similar to their own; for which reason a government has never been established where the supreme power has been placed amongst those of the middling rank, or very seldom; and, amongst a few, one man only of those who have yet been conquerors has been persuaded to give the preference to this order of [1296b] men: it is indeed an established custom with the inhabitants of most cities not to desire an equality, but either to aspire to govern, or when they are conquered, to submit.
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Thompson, and Eric Hobsbawm, among others, Wells asserts, "When middling southerners voiced opposition to planter intransigence in supporting manufacturing enterprises, when they spoke in favor of education reform, when they argued that dueling was a barbaric relic that embarrassed the region, they were expressing a class ideology that was clearly in pursuit of class interests." In several excellent chapters that explore travel patterns, voluntary associations, and education reform, Wells reveals that many professional and commercial groups across the Old South did have interests in common and shared certain cultural assumptions.
The Origins of the Southern Middle Class, 1800-1861
Enterprise was the foundation of this experience for the businessmen (if you happened to be a merchant, manufacturer, or master artisan), honor and authority figured centrally if you were a learned professional, and, for the lowlier, but still middling, clerks, hope in the future was a touchstone of middle-class identity.
A Sense of Their Duty: Middle-Class Formation in Victorian Ontario Towns. (Reviews)
Chapters Two and Three set the scene by outlining how the vast energies of these middling white men unleashed a democratic new political culture and an entrepreneurial new economic culture between the 1790s and the 1820s.
Inheriting the Revolution: The first generation of Americans. (Reviews)
Uncertainty stalked the middling shopkeeper, manufacturer or trader; Hunt unearthed telling case studies to enliven broader generalizations of middle-class hopes and terrors.
The Middling Sort: Commerce, Gender and the Family in England, 1680-1780
Smail's book traces the emergence of a culturally distinct group he calls the "middle class" out of the ranks of a more generic "middling sort." In the course of developing this argument, Small supplies a rather detailed taxonomy of the two groups.
The Origins of Middle-Class Culture: Halifax, Yorkshire, 1660-1780
Although he would rise to fame and fortune, young Adams' family background was undeniably of "the middling sort." The fact of his rise, and that of a number of other "Founders," has been acknowledged by historians.
Middle class rising in revolutionary America: the evidence from manners
Wahrman's method is to scrutinize the public pronouncements of the period between 1780 and 1840 for phrases expressive of a "middle-class" conception of society, polity, and history: "middle ranks," "middle station," "middling order," "middle class," and "middle classes." He then examines the attributes bestowed upon this "imagined" category of the population and the polemical and analytical purposes to which they were put.
Imagining the Middle Class: The Political Representation of Class in Britain, c. 1780-1840

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