Middling vs Fair - What's the difference?
middling | fair |
Of intermediate or average size, position, or quality; mediocre
* 12 July 2012 , Sam Adams, AV Club Ice Age: Continental Drift
In fairly good health.
*1913 ,
*:"And how's that chest of yours?" demanded Mrs. Morel.
*:He smiled again, with his blue eyes rather sunny.
*:"Oh, it's very middlin' ," he said.
Beautiful, of a pleasing appearance, with a pure and fresh quality.
:
:
*{{quote-book, year=1917, year_published=2008
, edition=HTML, author=(Edgar Rice Burroughs), publisher=The Gutenberg Project
, title= *{{quote-book, year=2010, author=(Stephan Grundy)
, title= Unblemished (figuratively or literally); clean and pure; innocent.
:
:
*Book of Common Prayer
*:a fair white linen cloth
Light in color, pale, particularly as regards skin tone but also referring to blond hair.
:
*1677 , (Matthew Hale),
*:the northern people large and fair -complexioned
*
*:This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. In complexion fair , and with blue or gray eyes, he was tall as any Viking, as broad in the shoulder.
Just, equitable.
:
*
*:“[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”
Adequate, reasonable, or decent.
:
*, chapter=3
, title= Favorable to a ship's course.
Not overcast; cloudless; clear; pleasant; propitious; said of the sky, weather, or wind, etc.
:
*(Matthew Prior) (1664-1721)
*:You wish fair winds may waft him over.
Free from obstacles or hindrances; unobstructed; unencumbered; open; direct; said of a road, passage, etc.
:
*Sir (Walter Raleigh) (ca.1554-1618)
*:The caliphs obtained a mighty empire, which was in a fair way to have enlarged.
(lb) Without sudden change of direction or curvature; smooth; flowing; said of the figure of a vessel, and of surfaces, water lines, and other lines.
(lb) Between the baselines.
Something which is fair (in various senses of the adjective).
(obsolete) A woman, a member of the ‘fair sex’; also as a collective singular, women.
* 1744 , , act 2, scene 8
* 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones , Folio Society 1973, p. 39:
* 1819 , Lord Byron, Don Juan , III.24:
(obsolete) Fairness, beauty.
A fair woman; a sweetheart.
* Shenstone
(obsolete) Good fortune; good luck.
* Shakespeare
To smoothen or even a surface (especially a connection or junction on a surface).
To bring into perfect alignment (especially about rivet holes when connecting structural members).
To construct or design a structure whose primary function is to produce a smooth outline or reduce air drag or water resistance.
(obsolete) To make fair or beautiful.
* Shakespeare
A community gathering to celebrate and exhibit local achievements.
An event for public entertainment and trade, a market.
* , chapter=7
, title= An event for professionals in a trade to learn of new products and do business.
A funfair, an amusement park.
As adjectives the difference between middling and fair
is that middling is of intermediate or average size, position, or quality; mediocre while fair is beautiful, of a pleasing appearance, with a pure and fresh quality.As a noun fair is
something which is fair (in various senses of the adjective).As a verb fair is
to smoothen or even a surface (especially a connection or junction on a surface).As an adverb fair is
clearly; openly; frankly; civilly; honestly; favorably; auspiciously; agreeably.middling
English
Adjective
(-)- The football team is never the worst or best in its league; its position is always middling .
- The matter of whether the world needs a fourth Ice Age movie pales beside the question of why there were three before it, but Continental Drift feels less like an extension of a theatrical franchise than an episode of a middling TV cartoon, lolling around on territory that’s already been settled.
Synonyms
* average, medium, unexceptionalDerived terms
* fair to middlingExternal links
*Origin of fair to middling
fair
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) fayr, feir, fager, from (etyl) .Adjective
(er)A Princess of Mars, passage="It was a purely scientific research party sent out by my father's father, the Jeddak of Helium, to rechart the air currents, and to take atmospheric density tests," replied the fair prisoner, in a low, well-modulated voice.}}
Beowulf, genre=Fiction, publisher=iUniverse, isbn=9781440156977, page=33 , passage=And yet he was also, though many generations separated them, distant cousin to the shining eoten-main Geard, whom the god Frea Ing had seen from afar and wedded; and to Scatha, the fair daughter of the old thurse Theasa, who had claimed a husband from among the gods as weregild for her father's slaying: often, it was said, the ugliest eotens would sire the fairest maids.}}
The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, page 200
Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.}}
Synonyms
* (beautiful) beautiful, pretty, lovely * (unblemished) pure, clean, neat * (light in color) pale * (just) honest, just, equitableDerived terms
* all's fair in love and war * fair and square * fair cop * fair copy * fair go * fair play * fair sex * fair to middling * fair use * fair-weather friend * to be fairNoun
(fair)- When will we learn to distinguish between the fair and the foul?
- ''Love and Hymen, hand in hand,
- ''Come, restore the nuptial band!
- ''And sincere delights prepare
- ''To crown the hero and the fair .
- In enjoying, therefore, such place of rendezvous, the British fair ought to esteem themselves more happy than any of their foreign sisters
- If single, probably his plighted Fair / Has in his absence wedded some rich miser [...].
- (Shakespeare)
- I have found out a gift for my fair .
- Now fair befall thee!
Verb
(en verb)- Fairing the foul.
Synonyms
* (to reduce air drag or water resistance) to streamlineDerived terms
* fair off * fair up * fairingDerived terms
* bid fair * fair and squareEtymology 2
From (etyl) feire, from (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=The turmoil went on—no rest, no peace. […] It was nearly eleven o'clock now, and he strolled out again. In the little fair created by the costers' barrows the evening only seemed beginning; and the naphtha flares made one's eyes ache, the men's voices grated harshly, and the girls' faces saddened one.}}