mediate — English Dictionary

Verb

1. To resolve differences, or to bring about a settlement, between conflicting parties.

   Usage

   • Transitive

   Examples

   Negotiators managed to mediate a ceasefire.

2. To intervene between conflicting parties in order to resolve differences or bring about a settlement.

   Usage

   • Intransitive

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   "Nay," replied Charles, gravely, "this is carrying your anger too far. Allow me to mediate between you. I must entreat, nay, I command, the Lady Francesca's presence."

3. To divide into two equal parts.

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   Then, Meaſuring Land, by vvalking over it, they ſtyled a Double-ſtep (i.e. the Space from the elevation of one Foot, to the ſame Foot ſet dovvn again, mediated by a ſtep of the other Foot) a Pace, equal to 5 Foot; a Thouſand of vvhich Paces made a Mile, vvhich is a Meaſure ſerving for any diſtance on Earth, and even for the Height of the Sphears.

4. To act as an intermediary causal or communicative agent; to convey.

   Examples

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   He had some advantage in the difference of our weapons; for his sword, as I recollect, was longer than mine, […] His obvious malignity of purpose never for a moment threw him off his guard, and he exhausted every feint and strategem proper to the science of defence; while, at the same time, he mediated the most desperate catastrophe to our rencounter.

   [A]s much as language in our modern technological world is mediated through the written word, quantitatively spoken language still reigns supreme.

5. To act as a spiritualistic medium.

6. To communicate via media; to frame; to provide a cultural narrative about.

Adjective

1. Acting through a mediating agency, indirect.

   Examples

   More examples (2)

   The Leibnitzio-Wolfians distinguish three acts in the process of representative cognition: — 1° the act of representing a (mediate) object to the mind; 2° the representation, or, to speak more properly, representamen, itself as an (immediate or vicarious) object exhibited to the mind; 3° the act by which the mind is conscious, immediately of the representative object, and, through it, mediately of the remote object represented.

   Vygotsky saw the development of language and mental powers as neither learned, in the ordinary way, nor emerging epigenetically, but as being social and mediate in nature, as arising from the interaction of adult and child, and as internalizing the cultural instrument of language for the processes of thought.

2. Intermediate between extremes.

   Examples

   soon the mediate clouds shall be dispell'd

3. Gained or effected by a medium or condition.

   Examples

   mediate positive proof

   More examples (1)

   The attempt of members of a society to observe and preserve mediate phases of acts in recurrent situations brings about the perpetuation of a mediate field in their society, in which a complex series of abstracted implements are prepared or premediated in advance of future acts.

Adjective

1. acting through or dependent on an intervening agency

   Antonyms

   immediate

   Examples

   the disease spread by mediate as well as direct contact

2. being neither at the beginning nor at the end in a series

   Synonyms

   in-betweenmiddle

   Examples

   adolescence is an awkward in-between age

   in a mediate position

   More examples (1)

   the middle point on a line

Verb

1. act between parties with a view to reconciling differences

   Synonyms

   intercedeintermediateliaisearbitrate

   Broader terms

   negociatenegotiatetalk terms

   Examples

   He interceded in the family dispute

   He mediated a settlement

2. occupy an intermediate or middle position or form a connecting link or stage between two others

   Broader terms

   lie

   Examples

   mediate between the old and the new