fair to middling

From the practice of classifying agricultural commodities as fair or middling. The earliest attested instance of these descriptions being combined into the phrase fair to middling was in a British publication of 1822 but the first instance of this usage being generalised is from an American publication of 1837

• ""O'er Waiting Harpstrings of the Mind" is pretty good, quite fair to middling—the whole seven of the stanzas—but repetition would be certain to take the excitement out of it in the course of time."
• "Not a heluva good one, but fair to middlin’."
• "For the next five months, Knicks fans will have to watch a collection of underachievers, inexperienced players and fair-to-middling pros attempt to be respectable."

• adequate
• OK
• tolerable