Emily Dickinson Lexicon

ME'DI-ATE, a. [Fr. mediat; It. mediato; from L. medius, middle.]

1. Middle; being between the two extremes. Anxious we hover in a mediate state. – Prior.
2. Interposed; intervening; being between two objects. Soon the mediate clouds shall be dispelled. – Prior.
3. Acting by means, or by an intervening cause or instrument. Thus we speak of mediate and immediate causes. The wind that propels a ship is the immediate cause of its motion; the oar with which a man rows a boat is the immediate cause of its motion; but the rower is the mediate cause, acting by means of the oar.