MIDST • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Midst

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/mɪdst/ /mɪst/ Listen

noun

Midst n.

The interior or central part or place; the middle; used chiefly in the objective case after in; as, in the midst of the forest. "And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him." "There is nothing... in the midst (of the play) which might not have been placed in the beginning."

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. Note: 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.

Synonyms: Midst, Middle. 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.

adverb

Midst adv. In the middle. (R.)

preposition

Midst prep. In the midst of; amidst.

See images of 'Midst'

Etymology of 'Midst'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Midst" Quotes from Famous Books

... in the middle of the farmyard, a group of children, those of the house and some neighbor's children, were standing around the kennel of Mirza, the dog, looking curiously at something with silent and concentrated attention. In the midst of them stood the baron, his hands behind his back, also looking on with curiosity. One would have taken him for a schoolmaster. When he saw the priest approaching, he moved away so as not to have to meet him and ...

— Une Vie, A Piece of String and Other Stories • Guy de Maupassant

... Rev. Amos Peewee, D.D., made a suitable improvement of the melancholy event of the week. He enlarged upon the uncertainty of life. He said that in the midst of life we are in death. He said that we are shadows and pursue shades. He added that we are here ...

— Trumps • George William Curtis

... He had struck a man in the face before a crowd of onlookers, and had as good as been ejected from their midst. From now on, he was an outcast from orderly society, was branded as one who was not wholly responsible for his actions—he, Maurice Guest, who had ever been so chary of committing himself. What made the matter ...

— Maurice Guest • Henry Handel Richardson

... profanation. St. Peter himself, sitting there in his chair, with his highly polished toe advanced, is a doll for us to play with. On one occasion I was in the church with my father, and the great nave was thronged with people and lined with soldiers, and down the midst went slowly a gorgeous procession, with Pope Pio Nono borne aloft, swayingly, the triple crown upon his head. He blessed the crowd, as he passed along, with outstretched hand. One can never forget such ...

— Hawthorne and His Circle • Julian Hawthorne

... disappear. The Federal Government cannot escape the necessity of performing this duty, of suppressing and destroying the lawless power which assails it, and permitting the Southern people to return to the Union. At the present moment, in the midst of a sanguinary conflict, they are blinded with passion and overflowing with enmity. But set them free from the power which now deceives and abuses them, which arrays them against their own best interests, and makes them the helpless victims of a wicked ...

— The Continental Monthly, Volume V. Issue I • Various

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