middle

plural middles · alternative myddle

1. A centre, midpoint.

   The middle of a circle is the point which has the same distance to every point of circle.

   Synonyms: centre

2. The part between the beginning and the end.

   I woke up in the middle of the night.

   2 more examples

   In the middle of the marathon, David collapsed from fatigue.

   Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms: centre, center, midst

3. ball gamesThe middle stump.
4. The central part of a human body; the waist.

   If I have a diet plan and stick to it, it is easy for me to have control over my middle.

   2012, Caroline Moore, Fasting In A Fast World

5. grammarThe middle voice.
6. governmentthe center of the political spectrum.

   As part of his successful re-election strategy, Clinton began governing from the middle.

7. An essay on social or literary issues in a newspaper or magazine, originally placed between the leading articles and the reviews.

   ‘Did you see the Spec. had a middle on “Rural Tenacities” last week. That was all Huckley.’

   1913 (date written), Rudyard Kipling, “The Village that Voted the Earth was Flat”, in A Diversity of Creatures, London: Macmillan and Co., […], published 1917, →OCLC, page 171

superlative middlemost · childish colloquial superlative middlest · alternative myddle

1. no comparativeLocated in the middle; in between.

   the middle point

   1 more example

   middle name, Middle English, Middle Ages

2. no comparativeCentral.
3. no comparativegrammarPertaining to the middle voice.

present singular third person middles · participle present middling · participle past middled · past middled · alternative myddle

1. obsoletetransitiveTo take a middle view of.First known use 17th–18th c.

   And now, to middle the matter between both, it is pity, that the man they favour has not that sort of merit which a person of a mind so delicate as that of Miss Harlowe might reasonably expect in a husband.

   1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXVII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC

2. obsoletetransitivenauticalTo double (a rope) into two equal portions; to fold in the middle.First known use 19th c.
3. transitiveball gamesTo strike (the ball) with the middle portion of the face of the bat.

1. A sheading of the Isle of Man.