I. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a middle position (= one that is between two extreme positions )
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They took a middle position, favouring decentralization but with some controls.
approach middle age (= be almost middle-aged )
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a stocky, balding man who was approaching middle age
be in the middle/midst of a recession
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We are in the midst of a world recession.
be well into middle age (= be obviously middle-aged, probably at least 50 )
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Most of the people there were well into middle age.
early middle age (= around age 40 )
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Two women in early middle age sat next to him.
high/low/middle rank
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Her father had been an army officer of fairly high rank.
in the middle of the night
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She woke up suddenly in the middle of the night.
inner/middle ear (= the parts inside your ear, which you use to hear sounds )
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I've got an infection in my middle ear.
late middle age (= around age 60 )
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a well-dressed man in late middle age
middle age (= between about 40 and 60 )
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He was in late middle age.
Middle Ages
Middle America
middle C
middle class
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This led to the creation of a new, affluent middle class.
middle distance
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She just stood there gazing into the middle distance.
middle ear
Middle East
middle finger
middle ground
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The negotiators could find no middle ground.
middle management (= the people in charge of small groups within an organization )
middle management
middle manager (= someone who manages a small part of a company )
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a middle manager in a computer company
middle name
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Don’t worry – discretion is my middle name.
middle school
Middle West
reach middle age (= be middle-aged )
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You need to start saving for retirement before you reach middle age.
smack in the middle/in front of sth etc
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There was a hole smack in the middle of the floor.
split sth in two/down the middle
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The war has split the nation in two.
steer a middle course (= chose a strategy that was not extreme )
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The government chose to steer a middle course between the two strategies .
the beginning/end/middle of the month
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You’ll receive your wages at the end of the month.
the inside/middle/outside lane
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Use the outside lane for overtaking only.
the Middle Ages (= the period in European history between about 1100 and 1500 AD )
the middle class
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A new middle class emerged after the war.
the middle of the afternoon
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It was the middle of a long hot summer afternoon.
the middle/centre ground (= opinions that are not extreme that most people would agree with )
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Both parties are battling to occupy the centre ground .
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Careful, Laura. You could be treading on dangerous ground expressing opinions etc that might offend someone .
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Each side was unwilling to give ground change their opinion .
the top/bottom/middle drawer
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He opened the bottom drawer and got out a T-shirt.
the upper/middle/lower register
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the upper register of the cello
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
right
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Mattan and the yellow jersey were right in the middle of the pack as it peddled hard in the blistering heat.
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It will probably start on Boxing Day when we are right in the middle of winter.
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My house is right in the middle of Stratford-upon-Avon, and I can watch the street market from my window.
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And then right in the middle is the lovely old wine town of Traben-Trarbach.
■ NOUN
class
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There is no middle class and little opportunity to improve one's lot.
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They are mostly over age 50, middle class and overwhelmingly Protestant.
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The opposition mostly represents the upper-middle class and intellectual elite.
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Forecasts of the size of the world middle class are of course problematic.
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It was for the upper middle class in their station wagons that rumbled over our heads at night.
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But in the early sixties, Loyola was pretty mucha school for white males from the middle and upper middle class .
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On this assumption, a ballpark number for the world middle class population by 2025 would be about 3. 7 billion.
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Most beneficiaries of federal housing subsidies are wealthy or at least upper middle class .
manager
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The questions of the fallen middle managers , however, are not trivial or self-centered.
name
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Know his likes and dislikes; know what makes him happy and sad; know his middle name .
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Let's just say this: Pretension is thy middle name .
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I think Serious is your middle name .
■ VERB
catch
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I got caught in the middle of it.
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Do you understand the danger of getting caught in the middle ? 7.
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Those firms which get caught in the middle appear not to do so well.
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Los Feliz has found itself caught in the middle of the battle.
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And we, the staff, were caught in the middle .
run
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A polished mahogany table, big enough to seat twenty people, ran down the middle of it.
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Permafrost line runs right through middle , I think.
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A long narrow corridor ran down the middle of the building with doors leading off it.
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Most teams like to run at the middle of the Dallas defense.
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She wondered why they didn't all run together in the middle .
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I can run along the middle .
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The frontier of the Agenais ran right through the middle of the town.
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Officials said they would lead to danger on the busy A689 which runs through the middle of the community.
sit
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They sat together in the middle of the plane.
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It sat forlornly in the middle of an arid coastal basin, lacking both a port and a railroad.
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Jamieson sat down in the middle of the sofa facing the fireplace, and asked Bob to sit down too.
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Dorothy sat down in the middle of the raft and held Toto in her arms.
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Horne, deeply agitated by a mixture of fear, terror and forced bravado, went and sat in the middle .
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Gorbachev and Reagan sat in the middle of the table on opposite sides, flanked by their aides.
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A woman walked in and sat at the middle of the counter - Maxim had chosen the furthest end.
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When chairs sit in the middle of a space, the back might be the first part you see.
stand
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Pretending to be an Arab, Phillips stood in the middle of the track with a blanket over his head.
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Only Ray and a high school student named Devon Franklin remained standing in the middle of the nave.
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William and Anna stand in the middle of the room.
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The man was standing undecided in the middle of the road like a rabbit caught in headlights at night.
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The clerk was standing in the middle of the lobby, staring.
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They stood in the middle of the road as we approached cautiously.
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Polly was standing in the middle of the floor, her hair brush raised above her head.
stop
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As soon as I decided not to go farther than Cambridge, I wanted to stop dead in the middle of the road.
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At Third Avenue, two turning busses were stopped in the middle of the intersection.
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Eventually it stopped in the middle of nowhere.
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I stopped in the middle of all those steps and felt for a second just salt and sea.
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When I was out shopping last year, 1 saw a guy stop in the middle of the sidewalk.
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Pike stopped in the middle of the tarmac.
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She stopped in the middle of a scream and the breath left her body with a groan.
wake
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I woke in the middle of the night and walked downstairs.
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I wake up in the middle of the night from a dream.
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If she woke up in the middle of the night, she'd be frightened.
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Powell woke Howland in the middle of the night and poured out his conviction, but it was too late.
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Maureen West says her daughter is still having nightmares and waking up in the middle of the night.
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I woke up in the middle of the night and took all of Jay's clothes out of the wardrobe.
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I woke up in the middle of the night to find that I was completely and utterly saturated.
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But there's one thing which still sometimes wakes me in the middle of the night.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
piggy in the middle
sth is sb's middle name
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Don't worry - consistency is my middle name.
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I think Serious is your middle name.
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Let's just say this: Pretension is thy middle name.
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Optimism is my middle name because, unable to agree on a name, my parents stuck a pin in a dictionary.
the Middle Ages
the Middle East
the Middle West
the middle distance
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Ezra leaned against the sink and stared off into the middle distance.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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"Did you enjoy the movie?" "It was OK but I got a little bored towards the middle ."
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Gary rowed out towards the middle of the lake.
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Going through the middle of Tokyo in the rush hour can be a nightmare.
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It was the middle of summer.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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But by the middle of the night, the alcohol will be metabolized and the rebound effect will set in.
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I had a spell in the middle of the season when I was useless.
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It was very hard work and during the middle we had a water fight.
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Somewhere in the middle lies the case for change.
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The group also is in the middle of a $ 45, 000 project to renovate a pagoda in the ancient quarter.
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The office block was in the middle of a hellish whirlwind.
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The state built 10 prisons from the opening of San Quentin in 1852 until the middle of the last decade.
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Time spent in taking stock is time well spent, even in the middle of a hectic day.
II. adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
age
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In the middle ages , celebrations lasted from Christmas to Epiphany.
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In middle age a nation seeks safety and consolidation of material gain.
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There I found a respectable-looking woman of middle age sitting on a sofa, sniffing tobacco.
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The Crown Prince had reached early middle age without marrying.
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He also had a disinterested fascination with the records of the middle ages , especially those of the west country.
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Life expectancy for all patients is middle age , and heart failure is the leading cause of death.
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Preserve me from the self-confidence of a famous late middle age .
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His body is less Muscle Beach than early middle age .
child
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They may send the middle children to Jessy's parents in an attempt to get the eldest through secondary school.
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Now, for the middle child .
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The wronged self Peter is the middle child of five.
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Richard Nixon: A middle child who became known for diplomacy in foreign affairs, among other things.
class
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On the other hand, while self help by its very nature is participatory, it has a strong middle class bias.
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There was for example the capacity of an expanding middle class to afford their own homes.
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It is easy to pretend that the values and standard of behaviour about which I am speaking are genteel or middle class .
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The new middle classes of industrial capitalism produced symbols which helped realize the value of industrial commodities.
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Nevertheless their Bible was widely circulated not only among the middle classes but among the nobility.
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But what about the poor and the lower middle class ?
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What little they spoke was in the specially reverent voice reserved by the middle classes for times of bereavement.
course
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How wide is the floodplain of the River Wharfe in this middle course of the valley?
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Managers must steer a middle course between political correctness and political babble.
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I usually steer a middle course which avoids both waste and effort.
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Pendulums move to extremes before they steady to the middle course , and so do journalistic trends.
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But I can find no middle course .
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He steered a middle course between intimacy and aloofness which would have endeared him to the most demanding of guests.
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In what ways do lower course valleys differ from middle course valleys?
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Was there a middle course she could take?
distance
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With glazed eyes he was staring into the middle distance .
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Captain Samphan was walking fast across the road in the middle distance , ordering some of the troops into the paddy field.
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Trees and grasses Coming to the middle distance , I now encounter trees.
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His father pushed back his chair and stood and leaned back against the sink, looking into the middle distance .
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Like Querelle, men in tatty soiled uniforms are flexing their muscles, while others stare vacantly into the middle distance .
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Half the folks gazing placidly into the middle distance were too stoned to blink.
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Few of them were caused by melancholy to sit staring slackly into the middle distance .
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Clayt drew up his shoulders and stared into the middle distance , as though he were finished.
ear
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When the cause of deafness is not solely in the outer and/or middle ear , high frequencies are likely to be affected.
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In fact, an ear infection alone can cause sudden severe pain as fluid builds up in the middle ear.
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Mean hearing thresholds are related mainly to the presence or absence of fluid in the middle ear .
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Vibrations or sound waves cause the eardrum to vibrate and these vibrations move through the middle ear to the inner ear.
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Three rats in the low fibre diet group suffered from middle ear infections and were removed from the study.
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An inflammation in the middle ear called otitis media can cause temporary or even permanent hearing loss.
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Microtympanometry, a sensitive method of diagnosing effusions of the middle ear , could help them in this.
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There is further evidence that untreated middle ear disease in childhood may have permanent effects.
east
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It could be Bosnia, it could be the middle east .
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They could not agree on the Gulf conflict and seem to have no agreed middle east policy.
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Mr. Janner I am sure that the Secretary of State recognises the sensitivities of the middle east peace process.
finger
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I was squealing with delight at the tricks his middle finger was playing when suddenly Captain leapt on us growling.
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Torn webbing between his right ring and middle fingers and a torn knee cartilage in 1992.
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Pausing at the door he turned once more and extended the middle finger of his right hand towards the bed.
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The hand withdrew, three middle fingers slathered.
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You will often see recipients tapping the table with the three middle fingers of one hand while their cup is being filled.
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The middle finger traced a heart on her lips.
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When the Reclusiarch passed back again, each initiate must hold out his middle finger , pointing stiffly forward from his fist.
ground
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He has continued to cling to the middle ground , but that ground has been shifting.
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Wynns held a colorful conversation with Sierra Club representative Howard Strassner to see if they could find middle ground .
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The Law can also be applied to the depth dimension, with a fulcrum in the middle ground .
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But it is a middle ground that hundreds of police officers use daily.
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This is the kind of argument that Clinton loves; it sets him on the middle ground .
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The middle ground of reason has long been lost on this issue.
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This upgrade places Dreamweaver firmly back in the middle ground without compromising the professional integrity of previous releases.
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The undecided middle ground is where the doubts can be talked out.
income
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Macleod was attacked by both liberals and conservatives in the Legco for failing to provide sufficient tax concessions to middle income earners.
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Current law restricts them to those with middle incomes and below.
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On the other hand, over the range of middle incomes , the percentages again remain broadly constant.
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In the low and middle income countries, life expectancy remained static at 68 years.
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We had little to say to those on middle incomes whose votes decide elections.
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Second, Michael Portillo's tax cuts, carefully aimed at middle income earners, will appeal on the doorstep.
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Trafalgar House's Sir Eric Parker says the tax squeeze on middle income earners could hit house prices.
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Items such as double glazing and cavity wall insulation are standard for middle income homes.
lane
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The Yugo finally skidded to a halt upside down and straddling the middle lane .
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She drove in the middle lane , skimming past lorries.
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There he was, making a name for himself after all those years in racing's middle lane .
management
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We also recruit some assistant food and beverage managers with experience directly into middle management positions.
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Rumors swept up from the factory floor and lofted back down again from the cubicles of middle management .
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Information is now provided for various Government departments and senior and middle management throughout the organisation.
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At the other extreme, you might distinguish only among top management , middle management, and the front lines.
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Some companies have dispensed with the middle management function altogether.
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Gordon is in customer support for a large computer company so heavy in middle management that he hardly ever works.
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Again, it was the middle management ranks that suffered the severest cuts.
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The post-independence generation is already in middle management positions.
manager
▪
Computers are belatedly replacing thousands of clerical staff and middle managers .
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In the organizational hierarchy of the past, middle managers were the people who remembered things, who passed on corporate culture.
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There are no layers of middle managers relaying messages - the environment is perfect for communication and intuition.
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Most of the layoffs hit middle managers , who will get severance packages of one to two years' pay and benefits.
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These will be drawn up by the teacher and should relate to those set by middle managers .
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But now modern information technology is making many of the former tasks of middle managers redundant.
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It seems inevitable that the flattening process will continue and that middle managers will continue to be squeezed.
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Indeed, there is every reason to suspect that middle managers are an endangered species.
market
▪
Only the Sunday Express, among all the middle market populars, was still a broadsheet in 1990.
name
▪
If so, no one would ever have dared to tease him about his middle name .
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Once you did something notorious, they tagged you with an extra name , a middle name that was ordinarily never used.
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Optimism is my middle name because, unable to agree on a name, my parents stuck a pin in a dictionary.
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Where I come from, the middle name is fight.
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It is essential to get full names of the client, including any middle names.
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For some reason he hated that middle name of his.
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Partisanship should be their middle name .
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They share the same middle name .
part
▪
What happens in the middle part of each phase may seem - mistakenly - unimportant.
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The humped-up middle part was clear of the water.
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The crescent-shaped eyes are attached to the middle part of the head.
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The middle part of Figure 1 shows a small selection of the retina enlarged.
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As time goes by ... The middle part of pregnancy is the best for most women.
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The good part , the early part, the middle part, the later part.
range
▪
Mr Patten scored well in the middle range , for example the town and country planning issues which most concern his own supporters.
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The Presario 4000 line of desktop and mini-tower computers is aimed at the lower and middle ranges of the market.
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The middle range , perhaps, was where a comfortable, accomplished actor could exist and grow.
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It falls into the middle range of portable belt sanders.
road
▪
The night was dark and still and the middle road had an eerie, forbidding atmosphere.
school
▪
My own work on middle school teachers provides some support for this view.
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In middle school , your children would rather attend your execution than have you attend their field trip.
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Another letter from the middle school was about a visiting theatre group and asked for money as well as a tear-off slip.
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Linda first saw Red at a middle school volleyball game.
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Such exposure should begin in middle school and increase in intensity and focus in high school.
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At the time of going press, primary and middle schools are being reorganized.
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Most of the local middle schools now expose students to careers through business speakers and visits to companies.
section
▪
The only place that is well out from the banks on a river is the middle section .
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The poem has three sections corresponding to the changes of rhyme, but with a peculiarity in the middle section.
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The lozenge-shaped objects in the middle section of the cell are mostly mitochondria.
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A lyrical middle section precedes to a repeated theme reinforced by a military drum gone mad.
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Some road walking is included especially in the middle section between moors.
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Try aiming for a beginning, a middle section and an ending.
way
▪
The middle way seeks to formalise, or at least make explicit, normative patterns in the general activity of reading.
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In sum, the mixed economy is a middle way between the market and the command political economies.
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However, some middle way between a basic inventory and a fully detailed record is possible.
▪
To help him resolve it, he brought in General Joseph McNarney, who eventually decided on a middle way .
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Essentially they are the party of the centre ground, the middle way .
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Perhaps there is a middle way .
▪
But for Labour, there seems no satisfactory middle way of electing their two top people.
years
▪
All these artists were the height of fashion in the middle years of the 19C.
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She would spend her middle years turning me into the man who would redeem her failed youth.
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After the hectic middle years , couples may renew or begin activities together for which there had not previously been time.
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She had scrambled through the middle years of the decade.
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Direct royal involvement in ecclesiastical affairs intensified from the middle years of the decade.
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And sadly, many of the people it kills are in their middle years .
▪
The reason why it is more productive in these middle years is simple.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
A white carpet ran down the middle aisle of the church.
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I missed the middle part of the movie.
▪
It's in the middle drawer of the file cabinet.
▪
Jane was wearing a gold ring on her middle finger.
▪
There were three of children in my family, and I was the middle one.
▪
You'll find the scissors in the middle drawer of my desk.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
In the organizational hierarchy of the past, middle managers were the people who remembered things, who passed on corporate culture.
▪
Instead, it was a real middle class, of diverse origins, pushed to the fore by changing conditions.
▪
Life expectancy for all patients is middle age, and heart failure is the leading cause of death.
▪
Secondly, she never lived to middle age.
▪
The middle assassin fired even as she dropped.
▪
The constituency's middle ground is a mess.
▪
We also recruit some assistant food and beverage managers with experience directly into middle management positions.