midst

plural midsts · alternative midest · alternative middest · alternative middis · alternative middst · alternative myddest · alternative mydest · alternative myddis · alternative myddst · alternative mydst

1. literaryoftenA place in the middle of something; may be used of a literal or metaphorical location.

   As he said in "I Have a Dream," the Negro "lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity."

   2002, Nathan W. Schlueter, quoting Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream, 1963, speech, quoted in One Dream Or Two?: Justice in America and in the Thought of Martin Luther King, Jr., page 89

   2 more examples

   Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.

   1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Affair at the Novelty Theatre”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020

   At dawn, in the midst of a mist that is both literal and the unformed shifting of thought, he encounters a young fox pup playfully shaking a bone.

   1995, Mary Ellen Pitts, Toward a Dialogue of Understandings: Loren Eiseley and the Critique of Science, page 225

   Synonyms: centre, center, middle

alternative midest · alternative middest · alternative middis · alternative middst · alternative myddest · alternative mydest · alternative myddis · alternative myddst · alternative mydst

1. rareAmong, in the middle of; amidst.

   Mildred comes home from work early only to discover her husband, Robert, midst of a lewd affair with their neighbor, Gladys.

   1 more example

   She puts the period often from his place ; And 'midst the sentence so her accent breaks

   1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: amid, amidst