Midst

• POS: Noun, Preposition

CIDE DICTIONARY

Midst, n. [From middest, in the middest, for older in middes, where -s is adverbial (orig. forming a genitive), or still older a midde, a midden, on midden. See Mid, and cf. Amidst.].

•  The interior or central part or place; the middle; -- used chiefly in the objective case after in; as, in the midst of the forest.  [1913 Webster]

  "And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him."  [1913 Webster]

  "There is nothing . . . in the midst [of the play] which might not have been placed in the beginning."  [1913 Webster]
•  Hence, figuratively, the condition of being surrounded or beset; the press; the burden; as, in the midst of official duties; in the midst of secular affairs.  [1913 Webster]

  " The expressions in our midst, in their midst, etc., are avoided by some good writers, the forms in the midst of us, in the midst of them, etc., being preferred."  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Midst, Middle.

Midst, prep. 

 In the midst of; amidst.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

Midst, adv. 

 In the middle.  Milton.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Midst, prep. & n.
--prep. poet. amidst.
--n. middle (now only in phrases as below).

Idiom

in the midst of among; in the middle of. in our (or your or their) midst among us (or you or them).

Etymology

ME middest, middes f. in middes, in middan (as IN, MID(1))

THESAURUS

Midst

amid, amidst, among, amongst, between, betwixt, betwixt and between, center, core, diameter, diaphragm, equator, heart, interior, kernel, mean, median, mid, middle, midmost, midpoint, midriff, nucleus, over, thick, thick of things, throughout, together with, waist, waistline, with, zone

ROGET THESAURUS

Midst

Middle

N middle, midst, mediety, mean, medium, middle term, center &c, mid-course, mezzo termine, juste milieu, halfway house, nave, navel, omphalos, nucleus, nucleolus, equidistance, bisection, half distance, equator, diaphragm, midriff, intermediate, middle, medial, mesial, mean, mid, median, average, middlemost, midmost, mediate, intermediate, equidistant, central, mediterranean, equatorial, homocentric, in the middle, midway, halfway, midships, amidships, in medias res.

Centrality

N centrality, centricalness, center, middle, focus, core, kernel, nucleus, nucleolus, heart, pole axis, bull's eye, nave, navel, umbilicus, backbone, marrow, pith, vertebra, vertebral column, hotbed, concentration, centralization, symmetry, center of gravity, center of pressure, center of percussion, center of oscillation, center of buoyancy, metacenter, central, centrical, middle, azygous, axial, focal, umbilical, concentric, middlemost, rachidian, spinal, vertebral, middle, midst, centrally.

Interposition

N interposition, interjacence, intercurrence, intervenience, interlocation, interdigitation, interjection, interpolation, interlineation, interspersion, intercalation, interpenetration, permeation, infiltration, intervention, interference, intrusion, obtrusion, insinuation, insertion, dovetailing, embolism, intermediary, intermedium, go between, bodkin, intruder, interloper, parenthesis, episode, flyleaf, partition, septum, diaphragm, midriff, dissepiment, party wall, panel, room divider, halfway house, interjacent, intercurrent, intervenient, intervening, intermediate, intermediary, intercalary, interstitial, embolismal, parenthetical, episodic, mediterranean, intrusive, embosomed, merged, between, betwixt, twixt, among, amongst, amid, amidst, mid, midst, in the thick of, betwixt and between, sandwich-wise, parenthetically, obiter dictum.