mid-channeln.adv.adj.
/ˌmɪdˈtʃanl/, U.S. /ˌmɪdˈtʃæn(ə)l/ A. n.
The middle of a channel, spec. the English Channel.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > sea or ocean > channel > [noun] > English Channel
South SeaOE
mid-channel1518
sleeve1574
the Channel1588
silver streak1879
1518 in J. D. Marwick Extracts Rec. Burgh Edinb. (1869) I. 177 [To] clenge thair calsayes to myd channel fornent thair dwelling places.
1763 Philos. Trans. 1762 (Royal Soc.) 52 452 It being a light Levant,..and both ships near mid-chanel.
1879 J. A. Froude Cæsar xvi. 267 At sunrise they were in midchannel,..with the cliffs of Britain plainly visible.
1991 World Monitor Dec. 49/1 We yowled with laughter as our young pilot zigged and zagged on a 12-mile course,..splashing 360-degree turns in mid-channel.
B. adv.
In the middle of a channel.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > sea or ocean > channel > [adverb]
mid-channel1653
1653 Mercurius Politicus No. 142. 2262 God having exceedingly favoured us in regard of the winds, our Fleet was got up as high as Port-land, Mid-channel.
1830 J. F. Cooper Water Witch III. iv. 102 By keeping mid-channel, she goes clear of White Stone and Frogs.
1847 Ld. Tennyson Princess iv. 73 To drench his dark locks in the gurgling wave Mid-channel.
1905 Baroness Orczy Scarlet Pimpernel xxiii. 222 We shall be mid-Channel ere Chauvelin has realised that we have slipped through his fingers.
C. adj.
Following the middle of a channel; situated or occurring in the middle of a channel.
ΚΠ
1749 J. Cleland Mem. Woman of Pleasure II. viii I kept him from the easy mid-channel direction.
1868 M. F. Tupper Twenty-one Ballads xix, in Fifty Protestant Ballads (1874) 91 They strive by these drag-lines to pull the ship back, But we break away..No mid-channel towings to hamper it.
1999 Sea Angler May 118/3 An unusual catch was a 10lb John Dory from a mid-channel wreck by Hugh Shepherd.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adv.adj.1518