# middling

Pronunciation: say "MID-ling" US /ˈmɪd(ə)lɪŋ/, UK /ˈmɪdlɪŋ/

## Adjective

1. Of average or intermediate size, position, or quality; neither clearly good nor clearly bad.
   - Simple: Average in size, value, or quality, not very good but not very bad.
   - _Critics gave the film middling reviews, praising the acting but faulting the plot._
   - _Her tennis ranking remained middling for years, neither rising nor falling._
4. In fairly good health; not seriously unwell, though not fully recovered either. *(dialectal, British)*
   - Simple: In fairly good health, but not fully well.
   - _When the doctor asked, he said he'd been middling of late._
   - _Her mother had been middling all winter, never quite ill but never quite right._

## Adverb

2. To a moderate degree; fairly or somewhat. *(dialectal, British)*
   - Simple: Fairly or somewhat, to a medium degree.
   - _The morning was middling cold, enough for a jacket but no more._
   - _She found the lecture middling interesting and slipped out early._
3. Not too badly; with modest or fair success. *(dialectal, British)*
   - Simple: Not too badly, with fair or modest results.
   - _The little bakery was doing middling, steady enough to keep its doors open._
   - _Crops came in middling that year, enough to see the family through._

## Noun

5. Anything that sits in the middle range, whether in size, position, or quality.
   - Simple: A thing that is average in size, value, or quality.
   - _The grader divided the catch into prime fish, middlings, and scraps._
   - _Each middling fetched less than the best stock but more than the seconds._
6. With the, people of moderate means considered as a group; the middle class.
   - Simple: The people of the middle class, those who are not rich and not poor.
   - _New taxes that year fell hardest on the middling, caught between rich and poor._
   - _The middling formed the backbone of the town's trade and crafts._

## Origin

The noun is probably formed from "middle" plus the suffix "-ing"; the adjective most likely derives from the noun, and the adverb in turn from the adjective.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/middling (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).