midnight

[mid-nahyt]

noun

1. the middle of the night; twelve o'clock at night.

adjective

1. of or relating to midnight.

2. resembling midnight, as in darkness.

midnight

/ ˈmɪdˌnaɪt /

noun

1. 1. the middle of the night; 12 o'clock at night

   2. ( as modifier )

      the midnight hour

2. to work or study late into the night

Other Word Forms

• midnightly adjective
• postmidnight adjective
• premidnight noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of midnight¹

before 900; Middle English; Old English midniht. See mid-, night

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. burn the midnight oil, to study or work far into the night.

   After months of burning the midnight oil, he really needed a vacation.

Example Sentences

The deflation of a leg stump knocked back with the clock barely beyond midnight.

Read more on BBC

When Damaryan Benton interned at a public-relations agency in Chicago, he said he would log on at 7 a.m., often have little time for lunch and frequently end up working past midnight.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Former Pacific Palisades resident Jonathan Rinderknecht has been charged with deliberately setting the Jan. 1 fire shortly after midnight near a trailhead.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Talking to the only other couple who managed not to chicken out like we did, I’ll never forget the looks on their faces when they learned we’d left in the midnight hour.

Read more on Salon

After tense negotiations, the channels vanished from YouTube TV just before midnight on Thursday - the deadline to reach a new deal.

Read more on BBC