graveyard shift

noun

1. a work shift usually beginning at about midnight and continuing for about eight hours through the early morning hours.

2. those who work this shift.

graveyard shift

noun

1. the working shift between midnight and morning

Word History and Origins

Origin of graveyard shift¹

An Americanism dating back to 1905–10

Example Sentences

Finally, he took a job as an unarmed security guard in South L.A. working a graveyard shift — at a time when L.A.’s murder rate was sky-high.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

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.

Read more on Salon

He was working the graveyard shift at Harvey Aluminum in Torrance when the melody came to him.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

She and her fiance work the graveyard shift at Amazon, but they went two weeks without pay after the fire displaced them, and have been jumping from motel to motel.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

He was working graveyard shifts in hospitality while trying to find acting work, and was rejected when he first auditioned for Hamilton.

Read more on BBC