middle Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an area that is approximately central within some larger region
    heart; eye; center; centre.
    • it is in the center of town
    • they ran forward into the heart of the struggle
    • they were in the eye of the storm
  2. noun an intermediate part or section
    • A whole is that which has beginning, middle, and end"- Aristotle
  3. noun the middle area of the human torso (usually in front)
    midsection; midriff.
    • young American women believe that a bare midriff is fashionable
  4. noun time between the beginning and the end of a temporal period
    • the middle of the war
    • rain during the middle of April
  5. verb put in the middle
  6. adjective satellite being neither at the beginning nor at the end in a series
    in-between; mediate.
    • adolescence is an awkward in-between age
    • in a mediate position
    • the middle point on a line
  7. adjective satellite equally distant from the extremes
    midway; center; halfway.
  8. adjective of a stage in the development of a language or literature between earlier and later stages
    • Middle English is the English language from about 1100 to 1500
    • Middle Gaelic
  9. adjective between an earlier and a later period of time
    • in the middle years
    • in his middle thirties

WordNet

Mid"dle adjective
Etymology
OE. middel, AS. middel; akin to D. middel, OHG. muttil, G. mittel. . See Mid, a.
Definitions
  1. Equally distant 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.
  2. Intermediate; intervening.
    Will, seeking good, finds many middle ends. Sir J. Davies.
    ✍ Middle is sometimes used in the formation of selfexplaining compounds; as, middle-sized, middle-witted.
Mid"dle noun
Etymology
AS. middel. See Middle, a.
Definitions
  1. The point or part equally distant from the extremities or exterior limits, as of a line, a surface, or a solid; an intervening point or part in space, time, or order of series; the midst; central portion; specif., the waist. Chaucer.
    "The middle of the land." Judg. ix. 37
    In this, as in most questions of state, there is a middle. Burke.
    Syn. -- See Midst.

Webster 1913