midland

plural midlands

1. The region of a country not near the borders; the interior.

   The City of Daejeon: the capital of Choongnam Province in the midland of Korea, now it is expanded to be a Metropolitan City.

   2007, Kye-hyŏng Pak, A Life, →ISBN, page 166

1. not comparableResembling or relating to the interior region of a country.

1. The loosely-defined region of the United States that is between the North and the South, where Midland American English is spoken.

   Throughout the Midland and the South, the nucleus of /aw/ is well front of center, [...]

   2011, William Labov, Principles of Linguistic Change, Volume 3, →ISBN

2. attributiveThe English Midlands.

   [...] the difficult Southern English found in the Kentish Ayenbite of Inwyt, or even from the Midland of Chaucer's poems.

   1912, Walter William Skeat, English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day

   1 more example

   The striking positional variants [...] of Virginia are probably an American innovation, since this feature is not found in Standard British English or the folk speech of the Midland and the south of England, though northern England and Scotland have it to some extent. […] It is worth noting that only two instances of the pronunciation /jɛst/, riming with guest, have been recorded in the New England settlement area (one near Boston, the other near Buffalo), a pronunciation widely used in the English Midland along with /jɪst/, riming with fist. These are the normal derivatives of OE gist, gest...

   1961, Pronunciation of English in the United States, pages 110 and 175

3. A suburb of Perth in the City of Swan, Western Australia.
4. A settlement in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
5. A town in Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada.
6. A number of places in the United States:
   1. A town in Sebastian County, Arkansas.
   2. A ghost town in Riverside County, California.
   3. An unincorporated community in Muscogee County, Georgia.
   4. An unincorporated community in Wright Township, Greene County, Indiana, United States.
   5. An unincorporated community in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky.
   6. An unincorporated community in Acadia Parish, Louisiana.
   7. A town in Allegany County, Maryland.
   8. A city, the county seat of Midland County, Michigan.
   9. An unincorporated community in Crawford County, Missouri.
   10. A town in Cabarrus County, North Carolina.
   11. A village in Clinton County, Ohio.
   12. A borough in Beaver County, Pennsylvania.
   13. A rural small town in Haakon County, South Dakota.
   14. An unincorporated community in Rutherford County, Tennessee.
   15. A city, the county seat of Midland County, Texas.
   16. An unincorporated community and census-designated place in Fauquier County, Virginia.
   17. A census-designated place in Pierce County, Washington.
7. historicalrail transportA former railway company in England, the Midland Railway.

   "... the case of the Midland and the case of the Great Eastern" (his Lordship had been referring to the reasons for special scales). "The case of the Midland we found to be very peculiar, because, unlike most of the other railway companies,..."

   1891, Report ... Together with the Proceedings of the [Great British Parliament's Joint Select] Committee [on Railway Rates and Charges], Minutes, Mr. Bidder, in Mr. George Henry Turner is re-called, line 1643, line 15551

   Synonyms: MR

comparative more Midland · superlative most Midland

1. From or pertaining to the English Midlands.

   This stimulated sales and suited the needs of small manufacturers in the Midland city, who could not afford to trade on credit.

   2004, Kenneth Morgan, Bristol and the Atlantic Trade in the Eighteenth Century, →ISBN, page 109

   3 more examples

   In the more Midland counties, there are thirteen ; in Staffordshire (Wolverhampton), one; in Warwick (Birmingham), seven; in Nottingham, three; in Leicester, one; and Northampton, one.

   1908, “Report of the Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-Minded”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 88

   The obvious inference was that Midland culture found its centre in Lichfield, and that the only claim to distinction which the larger town could make was based on commercial grounds.

   1923, “The Old Book Trade in Birmingham”, in The Publishers' Circular and Booksellers' Record, page 235

   His only visit to London had been that on which been touched by Queen Anne for the King's Evil and throughout his life he preserved a Midland accent in his speech.

   1930, Victoria Roberts, Eighteenth Century Gentlemen, →ISBN, page 73

2. Relating to the dialect of American English spoken in the Midwest known as Midland American English.