Found 1 items, similar to Middle passage.
English → English (gcide) Definition: Middle passage Passage \Pas"sage\, n. [F. passage. See Pass, v. i.] 1. The act of passing; transit from one place to another; movement from point to point; a going by, over, across, or through; as, the passage of a man or a carriage; the passage of a ship or a bird; the passage of light; the passage of fluids through the pores or channels of the body. [1913 Webster] What! are my doors opposed against my passage! --Shak. [1913 Webster] 2. Transit by means of conveyance; journey, as by water, carriage, car, or the like; travel; right, liberty, or means, of passing; conveyance. [1913 Webster] The ship in which he had taken passage. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster] 3. Price paid for the liberty to pass; fare; as, to pay one's passage. [1913 Webster] 4. Removal from life; decease; departure; death. [R.] “Endure thy mortal passage.” --Milton. [1913 Webster] When he is fit and season'd for his passage. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 5. Way; road; path; channel or course through or by which one passes; way of exit or entrance; way of access or transit. Hence, a common avenue to various apartments in a building; a hall; a corridor. [1913 Webster] And with his pointed dart Explores the nearest passage to his heart. --Dryden. [1913 Webster] The Persian army had advanced into the . . . passages of Cilicia. --South. [1913 Webster] 6. A continuous course, process, or progress; a connected or continuous series; as, the passage of time. [1913 Webster] The conduct and passage of affairs. --Sir J. Davies. [1913 Webster] The passage and whole carriage of this action. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 7. A separate part of a course, process, or series; an occurrence; an incident; an act or deed. “In thy passages of life.” --Shak. [1913 Webster] The . . . almost incredible passage of their unbelief. --South. [1913 Webster] 8. A particular portion constituting a part of something continuous; esp., a portion of a book, speech, or musical composition; a paragraph; a clause. [1913 Webster] How commentators each dark passage shun. --Young. [1913 Webster] 9. Reception; currency. [Obs.] --Sir K. Digby. [1913 Webster] 10. A pass or en encounter; as, a passage at arms. [1913 Webster] No passages of love Betwixt us twain henceforward evermore. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster] 11. A movement or an evacuation of the bowels. [1913 Webster] 12. In parliamentary proceedings: (a) The course of a proposition (bill, resolution, etc.) through the several stages of consideration and action; as, during its passage through Congress the bill was amended in both Houses. (b) The advancement of a bill or other proposition from one stage to another by an affirmative vote; esp., the final affirmative action of the body upon a proposition; hence, adoption; enactment; as, the passage of the bill to its third reading was delayed. “The passage of the Stamp Act.” --D. Hosack. [1913 Webster] The final question was then put upon its passage. --Cushing. [1913 Webster] In passage, in passing; cursorily. “These . . . have been studied but in passage.” --Bacon. Middle passage, Northeast passage, Northwest passage. See under Middle, Northeast, etc. Of passage, passing from one place, region, or climate, to another; migratory; -- said especially of birds. “Birds of passage.” --Longfellow. Passage hawk, a hawk taken on its passage or migration. Passage money, money paid for conveyance of a passenger, -- usually for carrying passengers by water. [1913 Webster] Syn: Vestibule; hall; corridor. See Vestibule. [1913 Webster] Middle \Mid"dle\ (m[i^]d"d'l), a. [OE. middel, AS. middel; akin to D. middel, OHG. muttil, G. mittel. [root]271. See Mid, a.] [1913 Webster] 1. Equally distant from the extreme either of a number of things or of one thing; mean; medial; as, the middle house in a row; a middle rank or station in life; flowers of middle summer; men of middle age. [1913 Webster] 2. Intermediate; intervening. [1913 Webster] Will, seeking good, finds many middle ends. --Sir J. Davies. [1913 Webster] Note: Middle is sometimes used in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, middle-sized, middle-witted. [1913 Webster] Middle Ages, the period of time intervening between the decline of the Roman Empire and the revival of letters. Hallam regards it as beginning with the sixth and ending with the fifteenth century. Middle class, in England, people who have an intermediate position between the aristocracy and the artisan class. It includes professional men, bankers, merchants, and small landed proprietors [1913 Webster] The middle-class electorate of Great Britain. --M. Arnold. [1913 Webster] Middle distance. (Paint.) See Middle-ground. Middle English. See English, n., 2. Middle Kingdom, China. Middle oil (Chem.), that part of the distillate obtained from coal tar which passes over between 170[deg] and 230[deg] Centigrade; -- distinguished from the light oil , and the heavy oil or dead oil. Middle passage, in the slave trade, that part of the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the West Indies. Middle post. (Arch.) Same as King-post. Middle States, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware; which, at the time of the formation of the Union, occupied a middle position between the Eastern States (or New England) and the Southern States. [U.S.] Middle term (Logic), that term of a syllogism with which the two extremes are separately compared, and by means of which they are brought together in the conclusion. --Brande. Middle tint (Paint.), a subdued or neutral tint. --Fairholt. Middle voice. (Gram.) See under Voice. Middle watch, the period from midnight to four a. m.; also, the men on watch during that time. --Ham. Nav. Encyc. Middle weight, a pugilist, boxer, or wrestler classed as of medium weight, i. e., over 140 and not over 160 lbs., in distinction from those classed as light weights, heavy weights , etc. [1913 Webster]