"middling sort" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "middling sorts",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
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  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {},
      "expansion": "middling sort (plural middling sorts)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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          "ref": "2005, Tony Judt, “The Social Democratic Movement”, in Postwar: A history of Europe since 1945, London: Vintage Books, published 2010, →ISBN:",
          "text": "On the contrary: ever since the decline of the music halls, theatre had been the purview of the middling sort—even when the subject matter was ostensibly proletarian.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Keith Linley, ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ in Context: The Politics of Passion, Anthem Press, →ISBN, page 33:",
          "text": "The upper ranks thought the middling sort were greedy, obsessed with making money, virtuous enough, but lacking taste, elegance and culture.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Tawny Paul, The Poverty of Disaster: Debt and Insecurity in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 11:",
          "text": "The rise of a middling sort of people is regarded as one of the most significant historical developments in early modern Britain, and an extensive historiography has been devoted to defining this social group.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The middle class, especially in 18th-century Britain."
      ],
      "id": "en-middling_sort-en-noun-fSem-ztV",
      "links": [
        [
          "middle class",
          "middle class"
        ],
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          "Britain",
          "Britain"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "middling class"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "middling sort"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "middling sorts",
      "tags": [
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      ]
    }
  ],
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      "expansion": "middling sort (plural middling sorts)",
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2005, Tony Judt, “The Social Democratic Movement”, in Postwar: A history of Europe since 1945, London: Vintage Books, published 2010, →ISBN:",
          "text": "On the contrary: ever since the decline of the music halls, theatre had been the purview of the middling sort—even when the subject matter was ostensibly proletarian.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Keith Linley, ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ in Context: The Politics of Passion, Anthem Press, →ISBN, page 33:",
          "text": "The upper ranks thought the middling sort were greedy, obsessed with making money, virtuous enough, but lacking taste, elegance and culture.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Tawny Paul, The Poverty of Disaster: Debt and Insecurity in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 11:",
          "text": "The rise of a middling sort of people is regarded as one of the most significant historical developments in early modern Britain, and an extensive historiography has been devoted to defining this social group.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The middle class, especially in 18th-century Britain."
      ],
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          "Britain",
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      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "middling class"
        }
      ]
    }
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  "word": "middling sort"
}