middle of the roader
- noun
:
moderado
- He's known as a middle of the roader who rarely supports controversial policies.
Examples
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The candidate appealed to middle of the roaders who were undecided about the upcoming election.
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Many voters identify as middle of the roaders in this election.
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As a middle of the roader, she tries to find common ground between conservative and liberal parties.
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John is a typical middle of the roader when it comes to politics.
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As a middle of the roader, she seeks to create a balanced approach to political issues.
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He's considered a middle of the roader for his willingness to listen to both sides in debates.
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The town's mayor is a middle of the roader, focusing on practical solutions rather than extreme ideologies.
Synonyms
85
4.6
A person with political views that are not extreme
24
4.2
A person with moderate political views between the left and the right
A person who has political views in the middle and avoids extremes
Antonyms
How Moderate
Surface Forms
Morphology
middle + of + the + roader
The expression derives from the transparent spatial idea 'middle of the road' (between extremes), which many learners can map onto a political/metaphorical meaning of being moderate; this cross-linguistic spatial-to-political mapping is common. However, the agentive form 'roader' is nonstandard and the shift from a literal location to a social/political label is metaphorical rather than purely compositional, so full understanding is likely but not guaranteed without prior exposure.
Etymology
The phrase middle of the roader may come from the image of someone standing in the middle of the road, not on the left or the right. That picture shows why it means 'a moderate person' who avoids extreme views.