Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Midst
Midst
,Noun.
1.
The interior or central part or place; the middle; – used chiefly in the objective case after in;
as, in the
. midst
of the forestAnd when the devil had thrown him in the
midst
, he came out of him. Luke iv. 35.
There is nothing . . . in the
midst
[of the play] which might not have been placed in the beginning. Dryden.
2.
Hence, figuratively, the condition of being surrounded or beset; the press; the burden;
as, in the
midst
of official duties; in the midst
of secular affairs.☞ The expressions in our midst, in their midst, etc., are avoided by some good writers, the forms in the midst of us, in the midst of them, etc., being preferred.
Midst in present usage commonly denotes a part or place surrounded on enveloped by or among other parts or objects (see
Amidst
); while middle is used of the center of length, or surface, or of a solid, etc. We say in the midst of a thicket; in the middle of a line, or the middle of a room; in the midst of darkness; in the middle of the night. Midst
,p
rep.
In the midst of; amidst.
Shak.
Midst
,adv.
In the middle.
[R.]
Milton.
Webster 1828 Edition
Midst
MIDST
,Noun.
The middle.
There is nothing said or done in the midst of the play, which might not have been placed in the beginning.
The phrase, in the midst, often signifies involved in, surrounded or overwhelmed by, or in the thickest part, or in the depths of; as in the midst of afflictions, troubles or cares; in the midst of our contemplations; in the midst of the battle; in the midst of pagan darkness and error; in the midst of gospel light; in the midst of the ocean; in the midst of civil dissensions.
From the midst, from the middle, or from among. Deut.18.
MIDST
,adv.
On earth,join all ye creatures to extol
Him first, Him last, Him midst, and without end.
Definition 2024
midst
midst
See also: 'midst
English
Alternative forms
- midest (obsolete)
- middis (obsolete)
- middst (obsolete)
- middest (obsolete)
- myddis (obsolete)
- mydst (obsolete)
- mydest (obsolete)
- myddst (obsolete)
- myddest (obsolete)
Noun
midst (uncountable)
- (often literary) A place in the middle of something; may be used of a literal or metaphorical location.
- 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, in The Affair at the Novelty Theatre:
- Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.
- 1995, Mary Ellen Pitts, Toward a Dialogue of Understandings: Loren Eiseley and the Critique of Science, page 225,
- At dawn, in the midst of a mist that is both literal and the unformed shifting of thought, he encounters a young fox pup playfully shaking a bone.
- 2002, Nathan W. Schlueter, One Dream Or Two?: Justice in America and in the Thought of Martin Luther King, Jr., page 89, quoting 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream, speech,
- As he said in "I Have a Dream," the Negro "lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity."
-
Translations
place in the middle of something
Preposition
midst
- (rare) Among, in the middle of; amid.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)
Quotations
- For usage examples of this term, see Citations:midst.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
in the middle of