middling

/'midliɳ/
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middling

The restaurant received middling reviews from local critics.

Definition

  1. Adjective:

    • Of average or moderate quality, size, or ability: "Middling" describes something that is neither very good nor very bad, but rather ordinary or intermediate.
    • (Informal) In fairly good health: Used to describe a state of health that is reasonably good but not excellent.

  2. Adverb:

    • Moderately, fairly, reasonably: "Middling" is used to indicate that something is done to a moderate degree or extent.

  3. Noun:

    • (Often plural) A commodity of intermediate grade or size: Historically used to refer to products, especially in milling or agriculture, that are of medium quality between the finest and the coarsest grades.
Usage Examples

  • Adjective:

    • The restaurant received middling reviews; it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either.
    • After his illness, he was feeling middling—not fully recovered but well enough to get out of bed.

  • Adverb:

    • She did middling well on the exam, scoring right around the class average.
    • The team played middling poorly in the first half but improved later.

  • Noun:

    • The mill separated the flour into fines, middlings, and bran.
    • He traded in wheat middlings for animal feed.
Advanced Usage
  • "fair to middling": A common idiomatic phrase meaning average or moderately good.
    • When asked how he was feeling, he replied, "Oh, fair to middling."
  • Used to express deliberate understatement or modesty about one's abilities or the quality of something.
    • He described his tennis skills as middling, though he actually plays quite well.
Variants and Related Words
  • Middle (adj/n): Central or of intermediate position. (e.g., ).
  • Mediocre (adj): Of only moderate quality; not very good. (Often more negative than "middling").
  • Average (adj/n): Constituting the result obtained by adding several amounts together and then dividing this total by the number of amounts; typical or common.
Synonyms
  • Adjective/Adverb: Average, moderate, mediocre, so-so, tolerable, passable, unexceptional.
  • Noun: Intermediate grade, medium grade.
Antonyms
  • Adjective/Adverb: Exceptional, outstanding, excellent, superb, terrible, awful.
Related Phrases
  • Fair to middling: (Idiom) Of average to moderately good quality.
    • The movie was fair to middling; it had some good moments but was forgettable overall.
  • No great shakes: (Idiom, similar meaning) Not very good or impressive.
    • As a singer, he's no great shakes, but he enjoys it.
middling

The restaurant received middling reviews from local critics.

Adjective
  1. lacking exceptional quality or ability
    • a novel of average merit
    • only a fair performance of the sonata
    • in fair health
    • the caliber of the students has gone from mediocre to above average
    • the performance was middling at best
Adverb
  1. to a moderately sufficient extent or degree
    • pretty big
    • pretty bad
    • jolly decent of him
    • the shoes are priced reasonably
    • he is fairly clever with computers
Noun
  1. any commodity of intermediate quality or size (especially when coarse particles of ground wheat are mixed with bran)

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