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Brit. /
m
dl 
l
n/, U.S. /md(
)l lan/ [< MIDDLE adj. + LINE n.2 Compare slightly earlier MIDLINE n.]
1. a. A central line, an axis; spec. (Naut.) (in a shipwright's plan) a line dividing a ship down the middle (see quot. 1805); (Croquet) the line of hoops placed in the middle of the lawn.
?c1400 in J. O. Halliwell
Rara Mathematica (1841) 58 Come toward and go froward til
e perpendicle..falle vpon
e mydel lyne of
e quadrant.
1685 H. MORE Paralipomena Prophetica xxxi. 281 The middle line, viz. that which is punctulated drawn through the midst of this walk.
1711 W. SUTHERLAND Ship-builders Assistant 46 To make the side Lines and middle Lines of the Decks out of winding one with another.
1805 Shipwright's Vade-mecum 117
Middle line, a line dividing the ship exactly in the middle. In the horizontal..plan, it is a right line bisecting the ship from the stem to the stern-post; and, in the..body-plan, it is a perpendicular line bisecting the ship from the keel to the height of the top of the side.
1821 W. M. CRAIG Lect. Drawing 351 In the same way you will get the middle line of the mouth.
1838 Civil Engineer & Architect's Jrnl. 1 96/1 Marking the middle line, or axis of the road, by stakes or pickets, placed at equal intervals apart.
1848 T. WHITE Ship Building 39 The upper works usually incline towards the middle line, or as it is termed ‘tumble home’.
1866 Croquet: Implem. & Laws 9 Place in the centre of the ground on the middle line.
1897 H. P. H
EDGES Hist. East-Hampton 182 Southampton ran a middle line from its east bounds,..and made therefrom a Great North and South Division.
1927 Dict. National Biogr. 1912-21 29/2 His ‘protected’ cruisers..were the first of a powerfully armed type of swift vessels protected from end to end by a strong deck, below water at the sides of the ship, but above water at the middle line.
b. The meridian (or its continuation below the horizon). Also: an equator, spec. the celestial equator or equinoctial. Obs.
1595 G. MARKHAM Trag. Sir R. Grinuile (1871) cxii, And now the night grew neere her middle line.
1597 T. MIDDLETON Wisdome of Solomon Paraphrased xvii, The sun not past the middle line of course, Did cleerely shine.
a1609 J. DENNYS Secr. Angling (1613)
I. iv. sig. B1
v, Of Heauen the middle Line, That makes of equall length both day and night.
1625 N. CARPENTER Geogr. Delineated I. iii. 60 The Magnet..is separated or diuided by a middle line or Æquator.
1661 T. ROSS tr. Silius Italicus
Second Punick War XIII. 369 When the dewy Night hath made Her course beyond her middle Line, then bring Th'aforesaid Victims to the Stygian King.
1737 H. BAKER Medulla Poetarum Romanorum I. 319 Bright Phoebus..from his Zenith vertically shines:..The Rays descend direct... Here equally the middle Line is found, To cut the radiant Zodiac in it's Round.
2. A course or state between two extremes; a middle way.
1692 DRYDEN Eleonora in
Wks. (1885) XI. 130 As all virtues keep the middle line, Yet somewhat more to one extreme incline.
1775 E. BURKE Speech Amer. Taxation 37 An Administration, that, having no scheme of their own, took a middle line.
1874 T. HARDY Far from Madding Crowd I. i. 9 Gabriel's features adhered throughout their form..exactly to the middle line between the beauty of St. John and the ugliness of Judas Iscariot.
1902 W. JAMES Varieties Relig. Experience xiv-xv. 339 The conduct we blame ourselves for not following lies nearer to the middle line of human effort.
1909 Daily Chron. 12 Jan. 6/3 Associated with art, Sir Hubert placed the Philistine in the middle line of intelligence.
1995 L. G
ARRETT Coming Plague xi. 331 Essex would continue walking a middle line, finding antibody evidence that 10 to 12 percent of people with AIDS were also infected with HTLV-I, but constantly underscoring that ‘we certainly don't have any proof that this agent causes AIDS.’
3. Anat. = MIDLINE n. 2.
1797 Encycl. Brit. XVII. 398/2 Draw a line in the body plan parallel to the middle line, at a distance equal to the half of what the stem is sided.
1858 H. GRAY Anat. 462 Along the middle line [of the corpus callosum] is a linear depression, the raphe.
1872 T. H. HUXLEY Lessons Elem. Physiol. VII. 174 A limb is..abducted when it is drawn away from the middle line.
1939 T. L. G
REEN Pract. Animal Biol. i. 176 These muscles meet in the middle line and cover the trachea.
1953 D. A. BANNERMAN Birds West & Equatorial Afr. II. 847 In the White-breasted Akalat (
I. rufipennis) the throat and middle line of the belly are white.
1961 J. S
TUBBLEFIELD Davies's Introd. Palaeontol. (ed. 3) v. 133 It is attached to the ventral surface of the body by a joint called the protopodite, from which a feeble process projects towards the middle line.
4. The middle of three or more lines.
1806 J. W. CALLCOTT Mus. Gram. 9 When the C Clef is placed so that the two cross strokes enclose the middle Line, it is called the Counter Tenor or Viola Clef.
1885 Cent. Mag. Feb. 599 (
caption) The center of the Federal left on the middle line of defense..was called by the Confederates ‘The Hornets' Nest’.
1992 Sci. Amer. May 87/2 (
caption) The leftmost line will appear complete. The middle line will also appear continuous.
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