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tant from the extreme either of a number of things or of one thing; mean; medial; as, the middle house in a row; a middle rank or station in life; flowers of middle summer; men of middle age.

Of or pertaining to the Middle Ages; mediæval.

Being about the middle of the ordinary age of man; between 30 and 50 years old.

The world, considered as lying between heaven and hell. [Obs.] Shak.

That part of a picture between the foreground and the background.

An agent between two parties; a broker; a go-between; any dealer between the producer and the consumer; in Ireland, one who takes land of the proprietors in large tracts, and then rents it out in small portions to the peasantry.

Being in the middle, or nearest the middle; midmost.

One of a middle or intermediate class in some schools and seminaries.

irst letter of the English and of many other alphabets. The capital A of the alphabets of Middle and Western Europe, as also the small letter (a), besides the forms in Italic, black letter, etc., are all descended from the old Latin A, which was borrowed from the Greek Alpha, of the same form; and this was made from th…

The movement which separates a limb or other part from the axis, or middle line, of the body.

To draw towards a common center or a middle line. Huxley.

A muscle which draws a limb or part of the body toward the middle line of the body, or closes extended parts of the body; -- opposed to abductor; as, the adductor of the eye, which turns the eye toward the nose. In the bivalve shells, the muscles which close the values of the shell are called adductor muscles. Verrill.…

to have employed stone for weapons and implements. See Augustan, Brazen, Golden, Heroic, Middle.

A lateral division of a building, separated from the middle part, called the nave, by a row of columns or piers, which support the roof or an upper wall containing windows, called the clearstory wall.

says, "The vail of the temple was to rent:" and of Judas, "He was hanged and to-burst the middle:" i. e., burst in two, or asunder. -- All along. See under Along. -- All and some, individually and collectively, one and all. [Obs.] "Displeased all and some." Fairfax. -- All but. (a) Scarcely; not even. [Obs.] Shak. (…

(Mus.) the counter-tenor clef, or the C clef, placed so that the two strokes include the middle line of the staff. Moore.

In the middle of a ship, with regard to her length, and sometimes also her breadth. Totten.

In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. "This fair tree amidst the garden." "Unseen amid the throng." "Amidst thick clouds." Milton. "Amidst acclamations." "Amidst the splendor and festivity of a court." Macaulay. But rather famish them amid their plenty. Shak.

A foot of three syllables, the middle one long, the first and last short (as, h. In modern prosody the accented syllable takes the place of the long and the unaccented of the short; as, pro-phet''ic.

A foot of three syllables, the middle one short and the others long, as in cast. Andrews.