middle

The middle of a circle is the point which has the same distance to every point of circle.

I woke up in the middle of the night.

In the middle of the marathon, David collapsed from fatigue.

Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

The part between the beginning and the end.

If I have a diet plan and stick to it, it is easy for me to have control over my middle.

2012, Caroline Moore, Fasting In A Fast World:

The central part of a human body; the waist.

As part of his successful re-election strategy, Clinton began governing from the middle.

(politics) the center of the political spectrum.

From Middle English middel, from Old English middel (“middle, centre, waist”), from Proto-Germanic *midlą, *midilą, *medalą (“middle”), a diminutive of Proto-Germanic *midjō (“middle, midst”) (compare *midjaz (“mid, middle”, adjective)), from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“between, in the middle, middle”).
Cognate with West Frisian middel, Dutch middel, German mittel (“middle”, adjective), German Mittel (“middle, means”, noun), Danish middel (“means, agent, medicine; middle/medium”). Related also to Swedish medel (“means, medium”), Icelandic meðal (“means, medicine”). See also mid.


middle

the middle point

middle name, Middle English, Middle Ages

(grammar) Pertaining to the middle voice.

knock someone into the middle of next week


middle

And now, to middle the matter between both, it is pity, that the man they favour has not that sort of merit which a person of a mind so delicate as that of Miss Harlowe might reasonably expect in a husband.

1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXVII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], →OCLC:

(obsolete, transitive) To take a middle view of.

(obsolete, nautical, transitive) To double (a rope) into two equal portions; to fold in the middle.

(cricket, transitive) To strike (the ball) with the middle portion of the face of the bat.

en-verb

middle (third-person singular simple present middles, present participle middling, simple past and past participle middled)

middles (present singular third-person)
middling (participle present)
middled (participle past)
middled (past)


middle

inflection of middel:
strong/weak plural