middling

UK: /ˈmɪdlɪŋ/ US: /ˈmɪdlɪŋ/ ,(mid′ling)

From the verb middle: (⇒ conjugate)

middling is: ⓘ

v pres p

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

mid•dling /ˈmɪdlɪŋ/   adj. 

1. average in size, quantity, or quality.
2. mediocre;
   ordinary;
   commonplace.

adv. 

3. moderately;
   fairly:
   doing middling well.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

mid•dling  (mid′ling), adj. 

1. medium, moderate, oraverage in size, quantity, or quality:
   The returns on such a large investment may be only middling.
2. mediocre;
   ordinary;
   commonplace;
   pedestrian:
   The restaurant's entrées are no better than middling.
3. Slang Terms [Older Use.] in fairly good health.

adv. 

4. moderately;
   fairly.

n. 

5. middlings, any of various products or commodities of intermediate quality, grade, size, etc., as the coarser particles of ground wheat mingled with bran.
6. Dialect Terms Often, middlings. Also called mid′dling meat′. [Chiefly Midland and Southern U.S.] salt pork or smoked side meat.

• late Middle English (north). See mid¹, -ling² 1375–1425

mid′dling•ly, adv. 

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

middling / ˈmɪdlɪŋ/ adjective

1. mediocre in quality, size, etc; neither good nor bad, esp in health (often in the phrase fair to middling)

adverb

1. moderately: middling well

Etymology: 15th Century (northern English and Scottish): from mid¹ + -ling²

ˈmiddlingly adverb

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

mid•dle /ˈmɪdəl/  adj. [before a noun]

1. in or near the center;
   central:
   the middle part of a room.
2. intermediate or intervening:
   We could see them in the middle distance.

n. [countable]

3. the point, part, time, etc., that is at the same distance from extremes, limits, or starting and ending points:
   [usually singular] in the middle of the pool.
4. the central part of the human body, esp. the waist:
   He bent at the middle.

Idioms

5. in the middle of, while doing something:
   I'm in the middle of an interview.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

mid•dle  (mid′l), adj., n., v., -dled, -dling. 
adj. 

1. equally distant from the extremes or outer limits;
   central:
   the middle point of a line; the middle singer in a trio.
2. intermediate or intervening:
   the middle distance.
3. medium or average:
   a man of middle size.
4. Linguistics (cap.) (in the history of a language) intermediate between periods classified as Old and New or Modern:
   Middle English.
5. Grammar (in some languages) noting a voice of verb inflection in which the subject is represented as acting on or for itself, in contrast to the active voice in which the subject acts, and the passive voice in which the subject is acted upon, as in Greek, egrapsámēn "I wrote for myself,'' égrapsa "I wrote,'' egráphēn "I was written.''
6. Geology (often cap.) Stratig. noting the division intermediate between the upper and lower divisions of a period, system, or the like:
   the Middle Devonian.

n. 

7. the point, part, position, etc., equidistant from extremes or limits.
8. the central part of the human body, esp. the waist:
   He gave him a punch in the middle.
9. something intermediate;
   mean.
10. (in farming) the ground between two rows of plants.

v.t., v.i. 

11. [Chiefly Naut.] to fold in half.

• bef. 900; Middle English, Old English middel; cognate with German mittel; akin to Old Norse methal among. See mid¹

Synonyms

• 1. equidistant, halfway, medial, midway.
• 7. midpoint.
  Middle, center, midst indicate something from which two or more other things are (approximately or exactly) equally distant.
  Middle denotes, literally or figuratively, the point or part equidistant from or intermediate between extremes or limits in space or in time:
  the middle of a road.
  Center, a more precise word, is ordinarily applied to a point within circular, globular, or regular bodies, or wherever a similar exactness appears to exist:
  the center of the earth;
  
  it may also be used metaphorically (still suggesting the core of a sphere):
  center of interest.
  Midst usually suggests that a person or thing is closely surrounded or encompassed on all sides, esp. by that which is thick or dense:
  the midst of a storm.

Antonyms

• 1. extreme.
• 7. extremity.

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

middle / ˈmɪd^əl/ adjective

1. equally distant from the ends or periphery of something; central
2. intermediate in status, situation, etc
3. located between the early and late parts of a series, time sequence, etc
4. not extreme, esp in size; medium
5. (esp in Greek and Sanskrit grammar) denoting a voice of verbs expressing reciprocal or reflexive action
   Compare active5, passive5
6. (usually capital) (of a language) intermediate between the earliest and the modern forms

noun

1. an area or point equal in distance from the ends or periphery or in time between the early and late parts
2. an intermediate part or section, such as the waist
3. the middle voice
4. See middle term
5. a position on the batting creases in alignment with the middle stumps on which a batter may take guard
6. in the middle of ⇒ in the course of: in the middle of the meeting, he took a telephone call

verb (transitive)

1. to place in the middle
2. to fold in two
3. to hit (the ball) with the middle of the bat

Etymology: Old English middel; compare Old Frisian middel, Dutch middel, German mittel