middling

/'midliɳ/

Definition

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

Adjective

Adverb

Noun

any commodity of intermediate quality or size (especially when coarse particles of ground wheat are mixed with bran)

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