middling Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun any commodity of intermediate quality or size (especially when coarse particles of ground wheat are mixed with bran)
  2. verb put in the middle
    middle.
  3. adjective satellite lacking exceptional quality or ability
    average; mediocre; fair.
    • 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
  4. adverb to a moderately sufficient extent or degree
    fairly; pretty; passably; reasonably; moderately; jolly; somewhat.
    • pretty big
    • pretty bad
    • jolly decent of him
    • the shoes are priced reasonably
    • he is fairly clever with computers

WordNet

Mid"dling adjective
Definitions
  1. Of middle rank, state, size, or quality; about equally distant from the extremes; medium; moderate; mediocre; ordinary. "A town of but middling size." Hallam.
    Plainly furnished, as beseemed the middling circumstances of its inhabitants. Hawthorne.
    -- Mid"dling*ly, adv. -- Mid"dling*ness, n.

Webster 1913