middling
1
4.6
- adjective
- /ˈmɪd.lɪŋ/
:
mediocre
- The restaurant received middling reviews, with customers noting that the food was decent but not remarkable.
- middling sort
- middling classes
We have even a middling job of protecting freedom.
- We have even a middling job of protecting freedom.
- And I'm not anywhere near like even middling Z list fame.
- The probability that service is exactly middling is infinitesimally small.
- It's like, well, no, It was about, you know, brown hair, brown eyes, middling heights.
Examples
-
We have even a middling job of protecting freedom.
-
Such texts were open to use by the middling sort in a way that was not possible before.
Academic text (1996) -
What if I have middling costs or high costs?
-
-I do think, male or female, I am of middling talent.
-
Good students liked him; the middling ones were afraid of him.
Fiction book (1993) -
While this might seem elaborate enough, writers for the middling sort gave this advice and then some.
Academic text (1996) -
I am a composer whose few works lie somewhere in the middling territory, certainly not of greatness, but I hope, of goodness.
Academic text (2000) -
The new literature suggests that the gap between the elite and the middling sort was closing after the mid-eighteenth century.
Academic text (1996) -
Harbor Freight are purveyors of tools of middling quality and incredibly inexpensive prices.
-
Both the elite and the middling sort were encouraged to show inferiors an affable and benevolent demeanor.
Academic text (1996)
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Good enough but not very good
∞
1.0
Ordinary and not very good
274
1.0
Average in quality or amount, neither very good nor bad
109
4.8
Only average in quality and not very good
81
2.3
Good enough to meet a need but not very good
21
3.0
Neither good nor bad
20
8.1
Average and not very impressive
5
4.4
Only average and not very good
2
8.8
Not very good and showing little interest
1
6.9
Medium quality, neither very good nor very bad
Not very good or interesting
Antonyms
Idioms
How Good
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Middling (adjective) comes from middle + -ing, meaning 'in the middle', so it describes something that is neither very good nor very bad — in other words, average or moderate.