middle distance

plural middle distances

1. artThe central portion of a picture in terms of depth, between the foreground and background.

   The atmosphere beneath is languorous, and is so tinged with azure that what artists call the middle distance partakes also of that hue, while the horizon beyond is of the deepest ultramarine.

   1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 12

   Synonyms: middle ground, midground

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see middle, distance.

   I won't go right on either. I'll just hang about in the middle distance to keep you up to the mark.

   1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries