graveyard shift

American  

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.

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graveyard shift British  

noun

1. the working shift between midnight and morning

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Etymology

Origin of graveyard shift

An Americanism dating back to 1905–10

Example Sentences

I always did the graveyard shift: I worked for 54 years.

From MarketWatch • May 15, 2026

For most of the last week, Taufahema has left his graveyard shift job as a security guard and driven to the walkway across the 101 freeway between the Balboa Boulevard and White Oak Avenue exits.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 25, 2026

"We are ghosts on the night shift," says Leandro Cristovao from Angola, who has worked the graveyard shift at a south London market for seven years.

From Barron's • Dec. 19, 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

The hours inch by, slower than a graveyard shift on the watchtowers.

From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir