[attrib. use of AVERAGE sb.2, in sense 5.]
1. Estimated by average; i.e., by equally distributing the aggregate inequalities of a series among all the individuals of which the series is composed.
1770. Month. Rev., 235. The average price of corn.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. I. v. 37, note. The average rent of the best arable land.
1797. Holcroft, trans. Stolberg’s Trav., IV. xcv. (ed. 2), 327. The average summer heat of these countries.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 309. The average income of a temporal peer was estimated … at about three thousand a year.
1851. Coal-trade Terms Northmbld. & Durh., 4. Average Weight.—The mean weight of a tub of coals at a colliery for any fortnight, upon which the hewers’ and putters’ wages are calculated … usually obtained by weighing two tubs in each score.
2. Equal to what would be the result of taking an average; medium, ordinary; of the usual or prevalent standard.
1803. W. Taylor, in Ann. Rev., I. 423. The manufacturer has to deal with the average poor, with the spendthrift and the sparethrift.
1812. Examiner, 5 Oct., 629/2. Of corn … there is not an average crop.
1858. Gladstone, Homer, III. 16. These districts by no means represent the average character of Greece.
1859. Mill, Liberty, 119. The honour and glory of the average man is, that he is capable of following that initiative.
1868. Ruskin, Pol. Econ. Art, ii. 89. A modern drawing of average merit.
