graveyard shift
Americannoun
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a work shift usually beginning at about midnight and continuing for about eight hours through the early morning hours.
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those who work this shift.
noun
Etymology
Origin of graveyard shift
An Americanism dating back to 1905–10
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I always did the graveyard shift: I worked for 54 years.
From MarketWatch ● May 15, 2026
He drove to Arizona from his native California after determining that no other streamer had taken the graveyard shift on the Guthrie beat, and he plans on streaming the residence deep into the night.
From Slate ● Feb. 23, 2026
The graveyard shift will become the domain of retail investors and specialized firms.
From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2025
Long-time evening anchor Wolf Blitzer was also asked to move to the mornings and, in a certain light, Acosta's potential bump to the graveyard shift can be seen as an accommodation of that.
From Salon ● Jan. 17, 2025
Another stays until midnight, when a fourth man takes the graveyard shift, posting himself outside Lincoln’s bedroom or following the president through the White House when he cannot sleep.
From "Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever" by Bill O'Reilly
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
