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Glite Dictionary
to dance all night

to dance all night

9 2.7
To move your body to music without stopping for the whole night at a party
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : bailar toda la noche
  • The party was so much fun that we decided to dance all night without taking a break.
  • dance all night long
  • keep dancing all night
  • just danced all night

Now then and we danced all night to the Best Song Ever.

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Examples

Synonyms

to dance the night away
vsto dance all night
  • Informal
5 4.4

To spend a long time moving to music until very late at night

is the same idea but used as a common set phrase
to rave
vsto dance all night
3 7.7

Attend an all-night party with loud electronic dance music

is broader, meaning nonstop dancing all night at any party
to disco
vsto dance all night
  • Archaic
2 4.8

To dance to lively music with a steady bass beat

focuses on a music style rather than nonstop all-night dancing

Antonyms

to rest
816 1.0

To stop activity to relax or sleep and get energy back

How Long

to dance all night
9 2.7
to dance
579 1.0

Surface Forms

dance all night infinitive
danced all night past
danced all night past participle
dancing all night present participle
dances all night third person singular

Morphology

dance + all + night

The meaning 'to dance continuously for the entire night' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'dance' (move rhythmically to music) with the duration phrase 'all night' where 'all' indicates the whole time. This verb + duration composition is a common and regular pattern in English (and in many other languages), so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Dance all night gives a clear picture: the word dance and the word night together show people dancing until the night is over. That's why it means 'to dance without stopping all night'.