burn the midnight oil
to work late at night
TRANSLATION
burn the midnight oil = bis spät in die Nacht arbeiten oder lernen
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
“For years, codebreakers have been struggling to unravel the secret language of Alan Greenspan. The best brains from the world’s elite universities have BURNED THE MIDNIGHT OIL to crack the code. But to no avail. Greenspan scrambles his thoughts in his own personal Enigma machine, from which they emerge as incomprehensible… when he surfaces from the depths of the Federal Reserve.”
Larry Elliott - The Guardian
Did you
know?
burn the midnight oil
idiomatic phrase
- To stay awake late at night to work or study
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy
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WORD ORIGIN
In 1635, this phrase was used by Francis Quarles in his literary work as a synonym for the strange word ‘elucubrate’, which literally means to work by the side of a candle:
Wee spend our mid-day sweat, or mid-night oyle;
Wee tyre the night in thought; the day in toyle.
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SYNONYMS
elucubrate, pull an all-nighter, be a night owl
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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation, say something like:
“Jim BURNED THE MIDNIGHT OIL and managed to submit the proposal just in the nick of time.”
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Thanks to Dieter for suggesting today's word!
