burn the midnight oil

English

Etymology

Originally referring to the act of burning lamp oil in oil lamps for light at night. The collocation midnight oil in its literal sense is attested from mid 17th c.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Verb

burn the midnight oil (third-person singular simple present burns the midnight oil, present participle burning the midnight oil, simple past and past participle burned the midnight oil or burnt the midnight oil)

1. (idiomatic) To work studiously, especially late into the night.

   Synonym: elucubrate

   Near-synonym: pull an all-nighter

   He was burning the midnight oil to finish his paper.

   She was burning the midnight oil to finish her part of the project.

   • 2013, Phil Cousineau, Burning the Midnight Oil: Illuminating Words for the Long Night's Journey Into Day‎, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

     You worked at whatever task you were engaged in — churning out steel nuts for the car companies or churning out essays in college — until you were done, even if you had to burn the midnight oil. No excuses, no whining, no cheating.

Translations

work through the night

Arabic: أشعل فانوس الليل Catalan: cremar-se les celles Chinese: Mandarin: 開夜車 / 开夜车 (zh) (kāi yèchē) ("to drive the night car"), 焚膏繼晷 / 焚膏继晷 (zh) (féngāojìguǐ), 挑燈夜戰 / 挑灯夜战 (zh) (tiǎodēngyèzhàn) Czech: pracovat dlouho do noci, ponocovat (cs), pracovat dnem i nocí Dutch: tot laat in de nacht werken, het nachtje doordoen Finnish: valvoa yötä myöten French: travailler tard le soir, bûcher (fr) German: bis spät in die Nacht arbeiten, die Nacht zum Tage machen Hebrew: לילה לבן (he) m or m pl or f or f pl Hungarian: késő éjszakáig tanul, éjjel-nappal tanul, éjszakázik (hu) Irish: déan airneán Italian: fare le ore piccole, passare la notte in bianco Japanese: 徹夜する (ja) (tetsuya suru) Latin: lūcūbrō Latvian: strādāt pa naktīm Polish: pracować po nocach (work at night(s)), zarywać nocki Portuguese: passar a noite em claro, virar a noite, fazer uma direta Russian: полуно́чничать (ru) impf (polunóčničatʹ), засиж́иваться (ru) impf (zasiž́ivatʹsja) (e.g. "до по́здней но́чи") Slovak: pracovať dlho do noci, pracovať vo dne v noci Spanish: hacer días y noches, quemarse las pestañas (es) Swedish: dygna (sv), låta flitens lampa lysa Tagalog: magsunog ng kilay

See also

• burn the candle at both ends
• candlewasting