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One who, or that which, is made a means, or is caused to serve a purpose; a medium, means, or agent. Or useful serving man and instrument, To any sovereign state. Shak. The bold are but the instruments of the wise. Dryden.

or condition of being instrumental; that which is instrumental; anything used as a means; medium; agency. The instrumentality of faith in justification. Bp. Burnet. The discovery of gunpowder developed the science of attack and defense in a new instrumentality. J. H. Newman.

Not refrangible; that can not be refracted in passing from one medium to another. -- Ir`re*fran"gi*ble*ness, n.

Having equal density, as different regions of a medium; passing through points at which the density is equal; as, an isopycnic line or surface.

A boat of medium size belonging to a ship.

To rise, or tend to rise, as if lighter than the surrounding medium; to become buoyant; -- opposed to gravitate. Sir. J. Herschel.

The medium through which light is admitted, as a window, or window pane; a skylight; in architecture, one of the compartments of a window made by a mullion or mullions. There were windows in three rows, and light was against light in three ranks. I Kings vii.4.

The middle bone of the proximal series of the carpus; -- called also semilunar, and intermedium.

acteristics; to make perceptible to the senses; hence, to present to the mind through the medium of material objects. Having wich wonderful art and beauty materialized, if I may so call it, a scheme of abstracted notions, and clothed the most nice, refined conceptions of philosophy in sensible images. Tatler.…

ty of crops, were expert in the manufacture and dyeing of cotton fabrics, used cacao as a medium of exchange, and were workers of gold, silver, and copper. Their architecture comprised elaborately carved temples and places, and they possessed a superior calendar, and a developed system of hieroglyphic writing, with rec…

of place, time, or number; the middle point or place; middle rate or degree; mediocrity; medium; absence of extremes or excess; moderation; measure. But to speak in a mean, the virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude. Bacon. There is a mean in all things. Dryden. The extremes we have m…

pl. of Medium.

Gained or effected by a medium or condition. Bacon. An act of mediate knowledge is complex. Sir W. Hamilton.

Having the ratio of the length to the breadth of the cranium a medium one; neither brachycephalic nor dolichocephalic.

Having the cranial cavity of medium capacity; neither megacephalic nor microcephalic.

Having the nose of medium width; between leptorhine and platyrhine.

Having a medium orbital index; having orbits neither broad nor narrow; between megaseme and microseme.

With a medium fullness of sound.

Having a medium compass between the soprano and contralto; -- said of the voice of a female singer. -- n.

Of middle rank, state, size, or quality; about equally distant from the extremes; medium; moderate; mediocre; ordinary. "A town of but middling size." Hallam. Plainly furnished, as beseemed the middling circumstances of its inhabitants. Hawthorne. -- Mid"dling*ly, adv. -- Mid"dling*ness, n.