mediate

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   acting through or dependent on an intervening agency

   the disease spread by mediate as well as direct contact

2. 2
   verb

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

   mediate between the old and the new

3. 3
   verb

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

   Negotiators managed to mediate a ceasefire.

4. 4
   verb

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

   "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."

5. 5
   verb

   To divide into two equal parts.

   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.

6. 6
   verb

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

   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.

7. 7
   adj

   Acting through a mediating agency, indirect.

   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.

8. 8
   adj

   Intermediate between extremes.

   soon the mediate clouds shall be dispell'd

Etymology

The adjective is first attested in the 1440s in Middle English, the verb in 1538; from Middle English mediat(e) (“intermediate; intercessory”), borrowed from Late Latin mediātus, perfect passive participle of mediō (“to divide in the middle; (in Medieval Latin) to be in the middle, be or become between, mediate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from medius (“middle”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix).