| 释义 |
medium, n. and a.|ˈmiːdɪəm|
Pl. media, -iums.
[a. L. medium, neuter of medius middle, cogn. with mid a.]
A. n.
1. a. A middle quality, degree, or condition. Formerly also, † something intermediate in nature or degree. † in a medium, intermediate (between).
1593Tell-Troth's N.Y. Gift (1876) 29 There is no concorde betweene water and fire, nor any medium betweene loue and hatred. 1618E. Elton Exp. Rom. vii. (1622) 362 There is no medium: no middle nor indifferent state and condition betweene these two. 1626Bacon Sylva §293 This Appetite is in a Medium between the other two. 1649W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653) To Husb., There is a Medium in all things. 1651French Distill. v. 111 A saltish slime, and in tast..a Medium betwixt salt, and Nitre. 1663Flagellum, or O. Cromwell (ed. 2) Pref., I place and reckon this Cromwell as a Medium or Mean, betwixt..Wallenstein..and Thomas Anello. 1752J. Gill Trinity vi. 116 Between God and a creature there is no medium. a1770Jortin Serm. (1771) VII. vi. 108 There is a medium between frantic zeal and sinful compliance. 1811Busby Dict. Mus. (ed. 3), Recitative, a species of musical recitation forming the medium between air and rhetorical declamation. 1811Byron Hints fr. Hor. lvii, Poesy between the best and worst No medium knows. a1820I. Milner in Mary Milner Life (1842) 510 Is there no medium between going to Court, and going a hunting? 1869Spurgeon J. Ploughm. Talk 28 There is a medium in all things, only blockheads go to extremes.
†b. Moderation. Obs.
1693Humours Town 88 They are generally Men of no Medium, but continually in Extreams. 1748Smollett Rod. Rand. (1812) I. 4 He determined..to observe no medium but..sent her a peremptory order. 1780W. Pitt in Ld. Stanhope Life I. 35 The use of the horse I assure you I do not neglect, in the properest medium.
†c. A middle course, compromise. Obs.
1719De Foe Crusoe i. (Globe) 33 When I let him know my Reason, he own'd it to be just, and offer'd me this Medium, that he [etc.].
†d. Something intermediate in position. Obs.
1726Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 12/1 That the Inhabitants may not be obliged to pass out of a cold Place into a hot one, without a Medium of temperate Air.
†2. Logic. The middle term of a syllogism; hence, a ground of proof or inference. Obs.
1584Fenner Def. Ministers (1587) 62 Let him..conclude the Apostles question, with his medium, argument, and reason. 1630Randolph Aristippus Wks. (1875) 19 Your drinking is syllogism, where a pottle is the major terminus, and a pint the minor, a quart the medium. 1641Vind. Smectymnuus v. 61 This we evinced by foure mediums out of Scripture. 1751Wesley Wks. (1872) XIV. 168 An equivocal medium proves nothing. 1757Sir J. Dalrymple Hist. Feudal Property (1758) 147 They had refused to subject estates tail to forfeiture, and on this medium, that who cannot alienate cannot forfeit. 1817Jas. Mill Brit. India III. i. 33 To trace the media of proof from one link to another..is not, say the lawyers, the way to justice.
†3. A (geometrical or arithmetical) mean; an average. Obs.
1612Davies Why Ireland, etc. 39 The reuenew..did not rise vnto 10000. li. per annum, though the Medium be taken of the best seauen years. 1638Wilkins New World iii. (1707) 30 Betwixt two Extreams there can be but one Medium. a1687Petty Pol. Arith. (1690) 55 At a medium I reckon that the whole Fleet must be Men of three or four years growth. 1727Swift Mod. Proposal Wks. 1755 II. ii. 62, I have reckoned upon a medium, that a child just born will weigh 12 pounds. 1731Bailey vol. II. s.v., Arithmetical Medium, is that which is equally distant from each extreme. Ibid., Geometrical Medium, is [etc.]. 1788Ld. Auckland Corr. (1861) II. 84 The medium of the thermometer continues here at about 70°. 1793Smeaton Edystone L. §113 The medium of half an inch on a side. 1817Jas. Mill Brit. India I. ii. i. 94 Only thirty-three years, as a medium, are assigned to a reign.
4. a. Any intervening substance through which a force acts on objects at a distance or through which impressions are conveyed to the senses: applied, e.g., to the air, the ether, or any substance considered with regard to its properties as a vehicle of light or sound. Often fig.
1595Chapman Ovids Banq. Sence D 2 margin, Sight is one of the three sences that hath his medium extrinsecally. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. i. i. ii. vi. 33 To the Sight three things are required, the Obiect, the Organ, and the Medium. 1643A. Ross Mel Heliconium 27 The air, which is the medium of musick and of all sounds. a1652J. Smith Sel. Disc. i. 25 They shall no more behold the Divinity through the dark mediums that eclipse the blessed sight of it. 1709Phil. Trans. XXVI. 368 Air is the only Medium for the Propagation of Sound. 1711Addison Spect. No. 257 ⁋8 He therefore who looks upon the Soul through its outward Actions, often sees it through a deceitful Medium. 1742Young Nt. Th. viii. 243 The Truth, thro' such a Medium seen, may make Impression deep. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 443 Both visible and sonorous bodies act equally by mediums, one of light and the other of air, vibrating upon our organs. 1794G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. II. xv. 136 By a medium..is meant any pellucid or transparent body, which suffers light to pass through it. 1815J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art I. 422 In passing into a denser medium, light is refracted towards the perpendicular. 1851Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. I. 189 The liability incurred by the nation is refracted through so many media. 1875Encycl. Brit. I. 100/1 The air around us forms the most important medium of sound to our organs of hearing. 1880Bastian Brain iii. 60 To rudimentary aggregations of pigment, in some animals transparent media are added, serving to condense the light thereon.
b. The application of the word in sense 4 to the air, ether, etc. has given rise to the new sense: Pervading or enveloping substance; the substance or ‘element’ in which an organism lives; hence fig. one's environment, conditions of life.
[1664Power Exp. Philos. Pref. 11 The aetherial Medium (wherein all the Stars and Planets do swim).] 1865Grote Plato I. v. 201 You cannot thus abstract any man from the social medium by which he is surrounded. 1873Hamerton Intell. Life ix. v. (1875) 320 The general talk, which is nothing but a neutral medium in which intelligences float. 1876L. Stephen Eng. Th. 18th C. I. i. 6 The gradual adaptation of the race to its medium. 1878Encycl. Brit. VIII. 36/2 When the insulating medium, or, as it is called, the ‘dielectric’, is shellac. 1880M. Arnold Lett. (1895) II. 184–5 The medium in which he [Burns] lived, Scotch peasants, Scotch Presbyterianism, and Scotch drink, is repulsive. Chaucer..pleases me more and more, and his medium is infinitely superior. 1886Encycl. Brit. XXI. 406/1 Thoroughly conducted cultivations should decide in what medium the Schizomycete flourishes best.
5. a. An intermediate agency, means, instrument or channel. Also, intermediation, instrumentality: in phrase by or through the medium of. spec. of newspapers, radio, television, etc., as vehicles of mass communication. Also attrib. and in pl. (see media2).
1605Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. xvi. §2 But yet is not of necessitie that Cogitations bee expressed by the Medium of Wordes. 1614Raleigh Hist. World ii. v. §10. 309 Moses..wrought..by the medium of mens affections. 1659T. Pecke Parnassi Puerp. 179, I know the Medium to let you see A wonder. 1726De Foe Hist. Devil ii. vi. (1840) 249 The devil has managed several secret operations by the medium or instrumentality of the cloven foot. 1775Burke Sp. Conc. Amer. Wks. III. 31 The proposition is peace. Not peace through the medium of war. 1795Gentl. Mag. 544/1 Some useful information..may..be hoped for through the medium of your curious Publication. c1811Fuseli in Lect. Paint. iv. (1848) 438 They are the end, this the medium. 1856Sir B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. I. v. 186 The seal..except through the medium of his whiskers,..may be said..[to have] no sense of touch at all. 1866Felton Anc. & Mod. Gr. I. i. 16 They [Latin and Greek] were the media of the scholarship, the science, the theology of the Middle Age. 1880Coach Builders' Art Jrnl. I. 63 Considering your Journal one of the best possible mediums for such a scheme. 1883S. R. Gardiner Hist. Eng. II. xvi. 184 note, It seems..more probable that the tarts went backwards and forwards as media of a correspondence. 1898Illingworth Div. Immanence vi. 136 He [Christ] ordained sacraments; selecting, as their media, the two..most universal religious rites. a1906Mod. The ―shire Gazette is the best advertising medium in the country. 1967M. McLuhan (title) The medium is the massage. 1968Listener 28 Mar. 394/3 My recent visits to the theatre, together with my colour television set, have convinced me that McLuhan has it wrong. The medium impedes the message.
b. medium of circulation or exchange, circulating medium: something which serves as the ordinary representative of exchangeable value, and as the instrument of commercial transactions; in civilized countries usually coin or written promises or orders for the delivery of coin. † In the American colonies often simply medium, chiefly used in speaking of the local paper currency.
1740Conn. Col. Rec. (1874) VIII. 318 The expences of this government are likely to be very heavy..by reason..of a great scarcity of a medium of exchange. 1740W. Douglass Disc. Curr. Brit. Plant. Amer. 6 Upon cancelling this Paper Medium all those Inconveniences did vanish. 1758in B. P. Smith Hist. Dartmouth Coll. (1878) 16 The discredit of our medium. 1828P. Cunningham N.S. Wales (ed. 3) II. 101 Bullion and paper, as mediums of circulation. 1833H. Martineau Charmed Sea Summary 135 The adoption of a medium of exchange. 1838Prescott Ferd. & Is. (1846) II. xvii. 128 The only medium for representing their property was bills of exchange. 1884Rep. Brit. Assoc. 837 Media of Exchange: some Notes on the Precious Metals and their Equivalents.
6. a. Painting. Any liquid ‘vehicle’ (as oil, water, albumen, etc.) with which pigments are mixed to render them capable of being used in painting. Also, any of the varieties of painting as determined by the nature of the vehicle employed, as oil-painting, water-colour, tempera, fresco, etc.
1854Fairholt Dict. Art, Medium, the menstruum, or liquid vehicle, with which the dry pigments are ground and made ready for the artist's use. 1892Nation (N.Y.) 15 Dec. 477/2 There is no man to-day who understands his medium [viz. water-colour] more perfectly. 1903Edin. Rev. Apr. 454 If his colours, his gilding, his mediums were of inferior quality, they were confiscated.
b. Photogr. A varnish used as a vehicle in ‘retouching’ (see quots.).
1890J. Hubert Retouching (1903) 23 If your medium will not take the blacklead readily, the former may be thickened. 1892Phot. Ann. II. 201 The simplest medium to render the surface of the negative suitable for marking upon is made by dissolving white powdered resin in turpentine... The negative to be retouched is prepared by rubbing upon it..a drop of the medium.
7. Theatr. A screen fixed in front of a source of light in order to throw a coloured light upon the stage.
1859G. A. Sala Gas-light & D., Getting up Pantomime, Gas pipes with coloured screens called ‘mediums’. 1873Routledge's Yng. Gentl. Mag. 282/1 Fish-tail burners, guarded by curved metal reflecting hoods on the back and by wire work on the front side..so as to allow of red or green tammy mediums being dropped over each row. 1933P. Godfrey Back-Stage vii. 90 ‘Two more floods up-stage, Bill,’ says the stage-manager. ‘What mediums, sir—amber or pink?’
8. Applied to a person.
a. gen. An intermediary agent, mediator.
1817T. E. Bowdich, etc. Mission to Ashantee i. iii. (1819) 63 This man..is our only safe medium, and interprets to the King anxiously and impressively.
b. Spiritualism, etc. A person who is supposed to be the organ of communications from departed spirits. Hence also applied to a clairvoyant or a person under hypnotic control.
1853H. Spicer Sights & Sounds 88 This lady was a medium, and as the subject of ‘spirit rappings’ was already [etc.]. 1854Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life (1870) III. xiv. 303 Bulwer is in the hands of a set of mediums, and passes his time in conversation with his dead daughter. 1888Bryce Amer. Commonw. III. 639 Attempts to pry by the help of ‘mediums’ into the book of Fate.
9. Senses derived from the adj.a. nonce-use. A person of the middle class.
1837T. Hook Jack Brag ii, The tip-toppers are livelier than the mediums.
b. A soldier of ‘medium’ equipment, between ‘light’ and ‘heavy’. (Cf. quot. 1876 in B. 1.)
1889N. & Q. 7th Ser. VIII. 111/1 The 4th Dragoon Guards are no longer ‘Heavies’, but ‘Mediums’. Ibid., Thirteen regiments of ‘Mediums’, comprising the seven regiments of Dragoon Guards, numbered 1 to 7 [etc.].
c. A kind of cotton goods.
1777in Essex Inst. Hist. Coll. (1906) XLII. 319 There cargo is Salt..37 bales, cases, hhds of mediums [etc.]. 1862Catal. Internat. Exhib. II. xviii. 4 India twills, silicias, casbans, and mediums.
10. A medium-dated security.
1968[see medium-dated adj., sense B. 3 below]. 1974Daily Tel. 25 May 20/6 The popularity among high tax⁓payers of low coupon mediums such as Treasury 3 p.c. 1979 is not all that difficult to comprehend. 1975Times 25 Apr. 24/7 ‘Shorts’, after being ½ point higher at one stage, ended mixed... ‘Longs’ and ‘mediums’ were up to 3/4 point up.
B. attrib. and adj.
1. a. Intermediate between two degrees, amounts, qualities, or classes.
1796C. Marshall Garden. ix. (1813) 114 A good medium way is to plant the deciduous sorts [of trees] the beginning of March. 1859Darwin Orig. Spec. iv. (1873) 92 A medium form may often long endure. 1876Voyle & Stevenson Milit. Dict. s.v. Cavalry, In the British army cavalry is classed as heavy, medium, and light cavalry. 1884Bath Herald 27 Dec. 6/5 The offal..is separated into broad bran, medium bran, and sharps. 1903Edin. Rev. Apr. 493 There is a tendency for land to get into the hands of medium and large proprietors. 1905J. Heywood Mus. Churches 17 Average choir boys cannot recite on a low note without being liable to use the thick register or chest voice instead of the medium register.
b. Fencing. medium guard: see quot. 1767.
1747J. Godfrey Sci. Defence 21 Here are four Guards, viz. Inside, Outside, Medium, and Hanging. Ibid. 22 The Medium is the Small-Sword Posture, and that alone may properly be called a guard. 1767Fergusson Dict. Terms Small Sword 13 Medium Guard, the arm, wrist, and sword in this guard ought to be kept in the same height as the Quarte, and the edge of the sword perpendicular to the ground.
c. The designation of a size of paper between royal and demy.
The sheet of medium writing and drawing paper usually measures 22 × 17½ inches; in U.S., 23 × 18. The sheet of medium printing paper is usually 24 × 19.
1711Act 10 Anne c. 18 §37 For..all Paper..called..Medium Fine..the Summe of Six Shillings for every Reame... Genoa Medium..Two Shillings and Six Pence for every Reame. 1774M. Mackenzie Maritime Surv. 105 A Folio Observation book of 4 Quires medium Paper. 1859Stationer's Handbk. 20, 73.
d. Of sherry, wine, etc., having a flavour intermediate between dry and sweet. So medium dry, medium sweet adj. phrs.
1906Hatch, Mansfield Price List 11 First Quality, Extra or Medium Dry. Ibid. 20 Light, Medium Sweet. 1933H. W. Allen Sherry iii. 46 This medium wine is likely to find its way into a blend of Amoroso. 1951R. Postgate Plain Man's Guide to Wine iii. 57 Their labels contain nothing more informative than ‘Best South African Sherry: Medium Dry’, or some such phrases. 1960I. Jefferies Dignity & Purity i. 18, I expect you'd like sherry, wouldn't you? Medium? 1961Twining Bros. Wine List 2 Amontillado Rico (Medium Dry)... Ancient Browne Rednutt (Medium Sweet). 1969Guardian 13 Feb. 9/1 The medium dry white wine. 1972A. Hunter Vivienne viii. 101 The waiter..remembered the Major's buying Mrs. Selly a drink, a medium sherry. 1972Country Life 23 Mar. 673/3 One can make it [sc. mead] very dry or quite sweet... I intended to make mine medium sweet. 1973J. Porter It's Murder with Dover v. 45 He sipped his medium sweet cider. 1974‘A. Gilbert’ Nice Little Killing iv. 61 Maybe a Dubonnet or a medium sherry—spirits never.
e. The designation of meat cooked between ‘well done’ and ‘rare’. So medium done, medium rare adj. phrs. (cf. rare a.2 b).
1939P. K. Newill Good Food iv. 72 Beef..medium..22–25 [minutes per pound]. 1953J. & M. Roberson Meat Cookbk. ii. 47 Beefsteaks{ddd}medium 1 in. 7 min. on each side. 1968L. O'Donnell Face of Crime (1969) vii. 104 His own steak was just as ordered: medium rare and delicious. 1972‘E. McBain’ Sadie when she Died iv. 45 Carella ordered prime ribs, medium rare. 1972House & Garden Feb. 111/1 Steak au poivre was ordered bleu..but arrived medium done. 1975M. Kenyon Mr Big xix. 176, I never saw myself..tellin' Jeeves to do the steak medium.
†2. Average, mean. Obs.
1670Pettus Fodinæ Reg. 9 Two Tun and a quarter of Oar make a Tun of Metal at a medium rate 3l. 10s. 1748Anson's Voy. ii. v. 182 The medium heat all the year round will be 66°. 1799Hull Advert. 14 Sept. 3/2 Both of which may be accounted medium years. 1800Misc. Tracts in Asiat. Ann. Reg. 72/2 The medium height of a Fahrenheit's thermometer was between 80° and 82°.
3. Comb.
a. With ns. used attrib., forming adjs., as medium-grade, medium-haul, medium-heel, medium-pace, medium-range, medium-rise, medium-term, medium-weight adjs.;
b. parasynthetic, as medium-coloured, medium-paced, medium-powered, medium-priced, medium-sized, adjs.; medium-dated a. (see quots. 1958 and 1968).
1891C. T. C. James Rom. Rigmarole 75 *Medium-coloured hair.
1948Financial Times 5 May 1/6 Among *medium-dated stocks War Loan 3½ per cent was a good spot. 1953Economist 25 July 287/3 In the gilt-edged market interest at first was concentrated upon the ‘shorts’ and the medium dated issues. 1958‘Nedlaw’ Your Guide to Stocks & Shares iii. 78 Medium dated, a gilt-edged security having more than five years but less than ten years to run to its final maturity or redemption date. 1968P. A. S. Taylor Dict. Econ. Terms 70 Medium-dated, ‘mediums’. Securities with a life of between five and fifteen years.
1877Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 174 A stratum of *medium-grade ore.
1963Punch 4 Sept. 352/3 The new *medium-haul Trident. 1965‘W. Haggard’ Hard Sell iii. 31 SAGA was building a medium-haul aircraft. 1974Times 14 Mar. 5/4 The new dishes now being served on all medium-haul flights.
1973A. Roy Sable Night iii. 24 Dark red suède *medium-heel shoes.
1898Westm. Gaz. 16 May 4/2 Slow and *medium-pace bowlers.
1884Lillywhite's Cricket Ann. 103 A straight *medium-paced bowler.
1963Bird & Hutton-Stott Veteran Motor Car 41 Georges Richard himself was more interested in the *medium-powered, medium-priced car.
1895Montgomery Ward Catal. 15/3 The most satisfactory *medium-priced cottons on the market. 1972E. Hargreaves Fair Green Weed v. 67 They were booked in at a medium-priced hotel.
1943Sun (Baltimore) 24 Aug. 2/6 But it could be of real value to *medium and short-range planes. 1974‘F. Clifford’ Grosvenor Square Goodbye ii. 166 The provision of a medium-range aircraft at Heathrow.
1968Guardian 19 June 3/3 ‘*Medium-rise’ housing—flats going up to only four or five stories. 1972Times 17 June 8/8 Aaron Wallis lived in Battersea, in a medium-rise block of no great character.
1882J. Hawthorne Fort. Fool i. xiv, He was a *medium-sized, full-bodied man.
1958Spectator 15 Aug. 216/3 A high credit rating for *medium-term loans. 1965McGraw-Hill Dict. Mod. Econ. 321 A medium-term forecast made in July, 1963, could cover the period from January, 1965, through 1967. 1969Times 5 May 22/2 The Midland Bank Finance Corporation..specialises in medium-term credit. 1971Jrnl. Gen Psychol. LXXXIV. 243 Span memory is distinct from medium-term memory in the case of semantic material.
1895Montgomery Ward Catal. 282/3 Men's *medium weight, natural wool color undershirts. 1964McCall's Sewing i. 11/1 Select medium-weight fabrics which drape nicely and add roundness. 1968M. S. Livingston Particle Physics i. 5 Medium-weight nuclei are the most tightly bound and the most stable.
c. attrib. and Comb. in sense 8 b.
1872Schele de Vere Americanisms 245 A Circle is held for Medium Developments and Spiritual Manifestations at Bloomfield-street every Sunday. 1886W. James in Proc. Amer. Soc. Psychical Res. 105 Her pupils contract in the medium-trance. 1919J. M. Keynes Econ. Consequences Peace iii. 37 Mr. Lloyd George's unerring, almost medium-like, sensibility to every one immediately round him. 1972A. Ford Life beyond Death i. 49 ‘I'm willing to go along with this stuff,’ a medium baiter said one time, ‘if you'll positively guarantee to bring me Socrates.’
d. Special collocations: medium bomber, a bomber intermediate between the heavy and the light; medium close-up Cinematogr., a cinematographic or television shot intermediate between a medium shot (see below) and a close-up; also called medium-close shot; medium frequency, an intermediate frequency (of oscillation); spec. in Broadcasting, a frequency of a medium wave, viz. one between 300 kilohertz and three megahertz; medium shot Cinematogr., a cinematographic or television shot intermediate between a close-up and a long shot; medium wave Broadcasting, a radio wave with wavelength between a hundred metres and a kilometre (see quot. 1929 for former limits); freq. attrib. (usu. hyphenated).
1935Flight 22 Aug. 204a/2 The specialized light bomber..may..be supplanted eventually by the very fast *medium bomber. 1938Encycl. Brit. Bk. of Year 161/1 A medium bomber can carry enough incendiary bombs to start 150 separate simultaneous fires. 1956U.S. Air Force Dict. 321/2 Medium bomber,..currently (1956), a bomber having a gross weight, including bomb load, of between 100,000 and 250,000 pounds..; a medium bomber is thought of as having medium range, and as being best used at medium altitudes, as well as having a medium gross weight. 1971E. Luttwak Dict. Mod. War 45/2 ‘Medium’ bombers and ‘light’ bombers retain a residual role in ‘tactical’ situations.
1957Manvell & Huntley Technique Film Music ii. 34 Long track, mostly in medium or *medium-close shot, with one large pull-back during the market-place scene.
1933A. Brunel Filmcraft 147 Scene 168. *Medium close up. The slave-driven father looks desperately round again. 1948E. Lindgren Art of Film v. 82 A medium close-up of his body on which shadows of the prison bars form a pattern. 1950E. E. Brodbeck Handbk. Basic Motion-Pict. Techniques 103 Medium close up... Such a scene shows the most vital part of the subject plus some of that part's surrounding area. 1969W. Rutherford Gallows Set vi. 77 David in medium close up came on the monitor screens.
1920Whittaker's Electr. Engineer's Pocket-Bk. (ed. 4) 348 The result..has been the adoption of two frequencies, a *medium frequency for general power and lighting, and a low frequency for systems supplying rotary converters. 1946Happy Landings (Air Ministry) July 9/1 The radio compass, when tuned to any medium frequency, was seriously affected by thunderstorms... The compass pointer did not point towards the M/F station selected. 1966McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. I. 363/2 European medium-frequency (mf) broadcasting channels are assigned at 9-kc intervals rather than the 10-kc intervals used in the Western hemisphere.
1933A. Brunel Filmcraft 150 Scene 488. *Medium shot. The waiter pouring out champagne into the glasses on Pauline's table. 1937Discovery Nov. 330/2 The [television] cameras are also fitted with lenses of suitable focal length for getting long-shots, medium-shots and close-ups as desired. 1953K. Reisz Technique Film Editing ii. 81 In a long-lasting shot (33) Bill slows down as he approaches the camera and finally comes to rest in medium shot. 1966H. P. Manoogian Film-Maker's Art vi. 219 In traditional editing the scene is established, usually in a long shot, and as the action within the scene proceeds a number of medium shots and close-ups are taken to relate that action. 1975New Yorker 26 May 32/3, I think we can get around the full lotus by having a stunt man do it, and using medium and long shots in a half-lit room.
1928Wireless World 7 Nov. 626/2 It will..be best to concentrate on maximum efficiency in *medium-wave transformers. 1929Jrnl. Inst. Electr. Engin. LXVIII. 22/2 The definitions were fixed as follows [by the International Radio Technical Committee]... Medium waves: kilocycles/sec 1500 to 100; m 200 to 3000. 1938D. H. Surgeoner Aircraft Radio iii. 23 Medium waves are..suitable for both communications and direction-finding and these can be transmitted over reasonable distances. 1961Radio Times 6 Apr. 9/1 The Network Three transmitters, both medium-wave and VHF, will be used for one channel..and the BBC's television sound transmitters for the other. 1974Medium wave [see long wave s.v. long a.1 18].
Add:[B.] [1.] f. Of an item of merchandise (esp. a garment): having a size intermediate between large and small.
1866Rural Amer. (Utica, N.Y.) 15 Mar. vi. 94/3 (Advt.), Early white flat dutch, size medium, grows quick. 1895Montgomery Ward Catal. Spring & Summer 283/2 Ladies' combination or union suits..small, medium and large. 1917Harrods Gen. Catal. 1238/2 Truffles... Med[ium] tin. Ibid. 1380/5 Spun silk spencers... Medium 10/6. Pure silk knickers... Medium 37/6. Large size 38/6. 1953Woman's Home Compan. June 69/1 Men's clothes are marked in many different ways, including those rather vague designations, ‘small, medium, large’ and A, B, C, D. 1966H. Yoxall Fashion of Life xiv. 134 We have a medium tube [of shaving cream] called ‘king size’. 1981J. Blume Tiger Eyes (1982) xxi. 89 They decide to split a medium pizza. 1989S. Kerslake An Old Night in Blind Date 26 He passes a room with shelves of folded white coats and jackets. He chooses a three quarterlength coat size medium. |