medley

From Middle English medle, from Anglo-Norman medlee, Old French medlee, from the feminine past participle of early Medieval Latin misculō (“to mix”). Compare meddle. Doublet of melee.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛdli/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛdli

medley (plural medleys)

1. (now rare, archaic) Combat, fighting; a battle. [from 14^thc.]
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “lxxj”, in Le Morte Darthur, book X:

     Thenne came the kyng of Irland and the kynge of the stryete marches to rescowe syre Tristram and sire Palomydes / There beganne a grete medle / & many knyghtes were smyten doune on bothe partyes / and alweyes sir launcelot spared sir Tristram / and he spared hym

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1632, Xenophon, translated by Philemon Holland, Cyrupaedia:

     For greater shields they have, than that they can either doe or see ought, and being raunged by hundreds no doubt they will hinder one another in the medley, except some very few

2. A collection or mixture of miscellaneous things. [from 17^thc.]

   a fruit medley

   • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, page 6:

     this medley of philosophy and war

   • 1692, William Walsh, Letters and Poems, Amorous and Gallant:

     Love is a medley of endearments, jars, / Suspicions, reconcilements, wars.

3. (music) A collection of related songs played or mixed together as a single piece. [from 17^thc.]

   They played a medley of favorite folk songs as an encore.

4. (swimming) A competitive swimming event that combines the four strokes of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle. [from 20th c.]
5. A cloth of mixed colours.
   • 1631, Thomas Fuller, Comment on Ruth , Chapter 1, verses 9, 10, 11:

     Otherwise , as our Saviour noteth , when the old Cloth was joyned to the new , it made no good medley , but the Rent was made the wors

• mashup

• meddle
• melee

medley (third-person singular simple present medleys, present participle medleying, simple past and past participle medleyed)

1. (music) To combine, to form a medley.

• yelmed

Borrowed from English medley.

• IPA^(key): /mɛdli/, [ˈmɛd̥li]

medley n (singular definite medleyet, plural indefinite medleyer)

1. medley (of songs; swimming event)

   Carola sang et medley af "Fame" og "Flashdance" ved koncerten.

   Carola sang a medley of "Fame" and "Flashdance" at the concert.

Borrowed from English medley.

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: med‧ley

medley m (plural medleys, diminutive medleytje n)

1. several songs strung together.

• potpourri

Unadapted borrowing from English medley. Doublet of mezclada.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmedlei/ [ˈmeð̞.lei̯]
• Rhymes: -edlei
• Syllabification: med‧ley

medley m (plural medleys)

1. medley (songs)

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Borrowed from English medley.

medley n

1. medley (songs)