night owl

American  

[nahyt oul] / ˈnaɪt ˌaʊl /

noun

Informal.

1. a person who often stays up late at night; nighthawk.

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night owl British  

noun

1. informal a person who is or prefers to be up and about late at night

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night owl Idioms  

1. A person who habitually stays up late and is active at night, as in You can call her after midnight, for she's a night owl. This colloquial term, originally used in the late 1500s for an owl that is active at night, was transferred to nocturnal human beings in the mid-1800s.

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Etymology

Origin of night owl

First recorded in 1585–95

Example Sentences

“If you’re a night owl who wants to get stuff done and you try waking up at 5 a.m., you’ll last a week, and you’ll become self-defeated and depressed.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 11, 2026

Early riser or night owl, everyone appreciates a good night's sleep.

From Science Daily • Mar. 1, 2024

I’m a bit of a night owl, and I thought, “I’m just going to sleep in tomorrow. Someone will tell me what happened. I just don’t even want to look.”

From New York Times • Jan. 23, 2024

He'd become such an early bird that he morphed into a night owl, a man resigned to a post-retirement inability to clock in more than four or five hours of rest.

From Salon • Dec. 2, 2023

He’d always been a night owl, and they were both happier when Adina got something almost like a full night of sleep.

From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny