Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MI-CROM'E-TER, n. [Gr. μικρος, small, and μετρον, measure.]

An instrument for measuring small objects or spaces, by the help of which, the apparent magnitude a objects viewed through the microscope or telescope, is measured with great exactness. Encyc.

MI-CRO-MET'RIC-AL, a.

1. Belonging to the micrometer.
2. Made by the micrometer. Humboldt.

MI'CRO-PHONE, n. [Gr. μικρος, small, and φωνη, sound.]

An instrument to augment small sounds; a microcoustic. Bailey.

MI'CRO-PYLE, n. [Gr. μικρος, small, and πυλη, mouth.]

In botany, the mouth of the foramen of an ovulum. Lindley.

MI'CRO-SCOPE, n. [Gr. μικρος, small, and σκοπεω, to view.]

An optical instrument consisting of lenses or mirrors, which magnify objects, and thus render visible minute objects which can not be seen by the naked eye, or enlarge the apparent magnitude of small visible bodies, so as to enable us to examine their texture or construction.

MI-CRO-SCOP'IC, or MI-CRO-SCOP'IC-AL, a.

1. Made by the aid of a microscope; as, microscopic observation. Arbuthnot.
2. Assisted by a microscope. Evading even the microscopic eye. Thomson.
3. Resembling a microscope; capable of seeing small objects. Why has not man a microscopic eye? Pope.
4. Very small; visible only by the aid of a microscope; as, a microscopic insect.

MI-CRO-SCOP'IC-AL-LY, adv.

By the microscope; with minute inspection. Good.

MI-CROS'CO-PIST, n.

One skilled in microscopy.

MI-CROS'CO-PY, n.

The use of the microscope.

MI'CRO-TINE, a. [Gr. μικρος, small.]

Having or consisting of small crystals. Shepard.

MIC-TU-RI'TION, n. [L. micturio.]

The desire of making water, or passing the urine. Darwin.

MID, a. [Sax. midd, midde; L. medius; W. mid, an inclosure.]

1. Middle; at equal distance from extremes; as, the mid hour of night. Rowe.
2. Intervening. No more the mountain larks, while Daphne sings, / Shall, lifting in mid air, suspend their wings. Pope.

MI'DA, n. [Gr. μιδας.]

A worm, or the bean-fly. Chambers.

MID'AGE, n.

The middle of life, or persons of that age. Shak.

MID'COURSE, n.

The middle of the course or way. Milton.

MID'-DAY, a.

Being at noon; meridional; as, the mid-day sun. Addison.

MID'-DAY, n.

The middle of the day; noon. Donne.

MID'DEN, n.

A dunghill.

MID'DEST, a. [superl. of Mid.]

Among the middest crowd. [Not used.] Spenser.

MID-DLE, a. [mid'l; Sax. middel; D. middel; G. mittel; Dan. middel; perhaps mid and deel; Sans. medhi and madhyam; L. medius; Gr. μεσος; It. mezzo; Sp. medio; Port. mayo, mediano; Ir. modham, muadh; Fr. midi, moyen, (mitan, obs.;) Ch. מצע. This word has the elements of the Sax. mid, D. mede, Sw. and Dan. mede, G. mit, with Gr. μετα, which is from the root of the English meet, – which see. Qu. has not the L. medius, in the phrase medius fidius, the sense of with or by; by or with my faith. In W. mid signifies an inclosure, a hem or list round a place. In Russ. mejdu signifies among. See Class Ms, No. 21, 27.]

1. Equally distant from the extremes; as, the middle point of a line or circle; the middle station of life. The middle path or course is most safe.
2. Intermediate; intervening. Will, seeking good, finds many middle ends. Davies. Middle ages, the ages or period of time about equally distant from the decline of the Roman empire and the revival of letters in Europe, or from the eighth to the fifteenth century of the Christian era.

MID'DLE, n.

1. The point or part equally distant from the extremities. See, there come people down by the middle of the land. Judges ix.
2. The time that passes, or events that happen between the beginning and the end. Dryden. Middle and center are not always used synonymously. Center is most properly applied to circular, globular or regular bodies; middle is used with less definiteness. We say, the center of a circle or of the solar system; the middle of a page, the middle of the night or of the month.

MID'DLE-AG-ED, a.

Being about the middle of the ordinary age of man. A middle-aged man is so called from the age of thirty-five or forty, to forty-five or fifty.

MID'DLE-EARTH, n. [Sax. middan-eard.]

The world. [Obs.] Shak.

MID'DLE-MOST, a.

Being in the middle, or nearest the middle of a number of things that are near the middle. If a thing is in the middle, it can not be more so, and in this sense the word is improper. But when two or more things are near the middle, one may be nearer than another.

MID'DLING, a. [Sax. midlen.]

Of middle rank, state, size or quality; about equally distant from the extremes; moderate. Thus we speak of people of the middling class or sort, neither high nor low; of a man of middling capacity or understanding; a man of middling size; fruit of a middling quality.