Skip to main content
all-night

all-night

35 3.4
Lasts or stays open through the whole night
  • adjective
  • /ɔl naɪt/
translation icon : nocturno
  • The city has an all-night diner that serves breakfast at any hour.
  • an all-night club
  • an all-night dance
  • an all-night ceremony

Examples

  • The parade was an all-night affair, and more than forty floats took part.

    Academic text (1998)
  • Somehow, she and I had fun driving around looking for an all-night dentist.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • It's supposed to pour all night.

  • Looks like an all-night job to me.

  • A group of men, mostly drug dealers, hang out at an all-night coffee shop.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • Then we went to an all-night drugstore and bought the lipstick to match.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • The pink moon shone on the water; all night the Pibar roved.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • General Masami Shinzo, in charge of Japan's defense, has kept the emergency council in all-night session.

  • Harry Stemkowsky's rattling wheelchair finally came to a halt in front of the all-night Walgreens Drugstore.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • The underground raves are described as all-night and/or two-day-long events that rely on alternative modes of advertisement.

    Academic text (2004)

Synonyms

overnight
vsall-night
100 2.2

Happening or used during the whole night

is the hyphenated written form rather than the single word
nightlong
vsall-night
3.9

Lasting for the whole night

is the hyphenated written form used instead

Antonyms

131 1.0

The time when the sun is up

How Long

all-night
35 3.4
overnight
195 1.2
late-night
84 3.9

Surface Forms

all-night positive

Morphology

all-night = all + night (transparent) = all + night

The meaning 'lasting through the whole night' follows directly from the combination of 'all' (whole) + 'night'.

Etymology

The word all-night is made from all- meaning 'whole' and night meaning 'night', so it literally means 'the whole night'. That's why an all-night shop or bus runs through the whole night, just like all-day means 'the whole day'.