A person or company standing between the maker and the buyer. There are two everyday uses. First, in trade: someone who buys goods from the person who makes or grows them and sells them on at a higher price — a fruit wholesaler, an importer, a shop. That extra price is why people say 'cut out the middleman', meaning buy straight from the farmer or factory so it costs less. This phrase is very common, and often carries the feeling that the middleman is taking money for doing little — a bit unfair to real wholesalers, who do carry, store and take risks, but that is the feeling in the word. Second, in any dealing between two sides: a person who carries messages and helps two parties who cannot or will not talk to each other directly — in a business deal, in a family argument, in politics. Here it is neutral or even positive: 'He acted as middleman between the two companies.' Plural is 'middlemen'. Because '-man' sounds male, careful and modern writing often prefers 'go-between', 'intermediary', 'broker' or 'agent', especially in the second sense; but 'middleman' is still extremely common in business talk, and 'cut out the middleman' has no replacement.