Kim Brooks

I attended a middling high school in central Virginia in the mid-'90s, so there were no lofty electives to stoke my artistic sensibility - no A.P. art history or African-American studies or language courses in Mandarin or Portuguese. I lived for English, for reading.

American Writer

Anthony Bourdain

I was a journeyman chef of middling abilities. Whatever authority I have as a commenter on this world comes from the sheer weight of 28 years in the business. I kicked around for 28 years and came out the other end alive and able to form a sentence.

American Author

Anita Elberse

Most large media firms make outsized investments to acquire and market a small number of titles with strong hit potential, and bank on their sales to make up for middling performance in the rest of their catalogs.

Educator

Walt Whitman

I heard what was said of the universe, heard it and heard it of several thousand years; it is middling well as far as it goes - but is that all?

American Poet

Hildegard Knef

If you have to make mistakes, make them good and big, don't be middling if you can help it.

German Actress

Herodotus

Many exceedingly rich men are unhappy, but many middling circumstances are fortunate.

Greek Historian

Blythe Danner

I've always had a middling kind of a career, not great highs and great lows.

American Actress

Roger Allam

In 1983 I was still playing small to middling parts.

English Actor

Often used with nouns to describe something as quite average, not particularly outstanding.

Common Pairings

Doesn't strongly sway towards positive or negative, but implies 'just enough' or 'sufficient'.

Connotatively Neutral

Avoid using 'middling' when describing something very high or low in quality or size.

Not for Extremes

Use as an adverb to indicate that something was done or achieved to an average extent.

Describes Effort/Success

More often used in informal conversation than in formal writing.

Informal Speech

In culinary contexts, it refers to average quality ingredients, not the cooking process.

Specific Domains

Used among professionals in a field, like baking, to quickly convey quality levels.

Technical Jargon

Avoid using 'middling' to describe people or their characteristics; it's inappropriate.

Not for People

 second case let's fast forward three centuries at our second search for a rhyme this time I encounter in the southeastern fortune of what is today Nigeria the Atlantic slave trade of course came to an end in the middling reaches of the 19th century thank God that this did not spell the end of

Africa’s rhyming history...

 So while disk A’s middling consistency was an advantage in a single matchup, multiple fights increase the odds that one of the other disks will summon something better. And although C was the worst first-round option,

Can you solve the...

 My country, the United Kingdom, is sort of middling, sort of dull, but who cares — at least we beat the French.

Middling