middling
/ˈmɪdlɪŋ/ (bre, ipa) · /ˈmɪdlɪŋ/ (ame, ipa) · /ˈmid-liŋ -lən/ (ame, mw)
middling — 形容詞
- middlingpositive
- more middlingcomparative
- most middlingsuperlative
1. in the middle area between good and bad, or between large and small — fine but w
中等的；普通
不好不壞、表現平平的
in the middle area between good and bad, or between large and small — fine but with nothing that makes it stand out.
Joon's restaurant got a middling review in the local newspaper last weekend.
Joon 的餐廳上週末在地方報紙上得到了一篇中等的評論。
predicative-style attributive use with evaluation nouns (review, score)
Sales for the new phone were middling, neither a hit nor a clear failure.
這款新手機的銷量普通，不算暢銷，也不能說是失敗。
predicative use after linking verb 'were'
Shirin is a middling tennis player who beats beginners but loses to club regulars.
Shirin 是個中等程度的網球選手，打得贏初學者，但輸給俱樂部的常客。
The bakery turned out middling cakes that nobody complained about but nobody praised either.
那家麵包店做出來的蛋糕只算普通，沒人抱怨，但也沒人稱讚。
After a middling start, the football team finally won three games in a row.
開頭表現中等之後，那支足球隊終於連續贏了三場比賽。
- excellent
clearly above average
- outstanding
clearly above average
- terrible
clearly below average
用法筆記
Slightly negative in tone — calling something 'middling' suggests disappointment that it is not better, even though it is not actually bad. Common before evaluation nouns (review, score, performance, results).
常見錯誤
middling — 名詞
1. (usually middlings) a batch of goods such as cotton, tobacco, or coal that is so
中等貨
棉花、菸草等分級時的中級品
(usually middlings) a batch of goods such as cotton, tobacco, or coal that is sorted into the middle quality grade — better than the lowest grade but not the best.
Cotton broker Yael sold the top grade in London and shipped the middlings to Cairo.
棉花商 Yael 把頂級棉賣到倫敦，中等貨則運往開羅。
plural form; trade / commodity context
Southern buyers paid less because most of the harvest was middlings, not top grade.
南方的買家付得比較少，因為這次收成大多是中等貨，而不是頂級品。
contrast with 'top grade' shows the middle position
Mining records from 1890 priced coal middlings at half the rate of top lumps.
1890 年的礦場記錄把中等煤的價格定在頂級煤塊的一半。
Lakshmi explained that tobacco middlings come from the centre leaves of the plant.
Lakshmi 解釋說，菸草中級品來自菸葉的中間段。
- medium grade
modern industry term for the same idea
- second grade
narrower; specifically the rank below the top
- top grade
the best-sorted batch
用法筆記
Almost always plural and usually paired with the name of the commodity (cotton middlings, tobacco middlings, coal middlings). Found mainly in 19th- and early 20th-century trade records and modern commodity-grading documents — rarely heard in everyday speech.
2. (usually middlings) the small grainy pieces of wheat left after the white flour
次粉；麥麩
篩出白麵粉後剩下的麥粒碎屑
(usually middlings) the small grainy pieces of wheat left after the white flour has been sifted out — often fed to farm animals or used in coarse bread.
Eshe bought a sack of wheat middlings from the mill to feed her hens.
Eshe 從磨坊買了一袋麥麩次粉，用來餵她養的母雞。
typical use: as animal feed
The miller separated the white flour from the middlings using a fine sieve.
磨坊主用細篩把白麵粉和粗粉分開。
process context shows what middlings are
Old farm books in Vermont recommend mixing middlings with corn for winter pig feed.
佛蒙特州的老農書建議把粗粉和玉米拌在一起，當冬天的豬飼料。
Renata's grandmother baked dark country bread using middlings instead of plain white flour.
Renata 的祖母用粗粉而不是純白麵粉，烤出深色的鄉村麵包。
- wheat middlings
the full common form
- millfeed
modern animal-feed industry term
- shorts
overlapping older term for the same milling fraction
- white flour
the fine, sifted product
- bran
the outer husk separated off
用法筆記
Always plural. Distinct from sense 1 (general commodity grade): here the word names a specific physical product of grain milling — the grainy stuff between fine flour and the outer bran. Common in agriculture and baking texts.