late-night dance marathon
- noun
- /leɪt naɪt dæns ˈmærəˌθɒn/
:
maratón de baile nocturno
- After midnight, the club hosted a spontaneous late-night dance marathon that lasted until dawn.
Examples
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The fundraiser was a late-night dance marathon that encouraged everyone to keep moving for charity.
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They emerged exhausted from the late-night dance marathon but were still smiling.
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The late-night dance marathon was a huge success!
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We attended a late-night dance marathon last weekend.
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After midnight, the club hosted a spontaneous late-night dance marathon that lasted until dawn.
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The fundraiser featured a lively late-night dance marathon to raise money for charity.
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Exhausted yet happy, they shared stories about their experiences at the late-night dance marathon.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is fully compositional: 'dance' + 'marathon' clearly signals a prolonged or endurance dance event and 'late-night' specifies it occurs late in the evening. The metaphorical use of 'marathon' to mean a long event is common and predictable, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words can infer the overall meaning.
Etymology
Late-night dance marathon paints a clear picture: the word marathon means a very long race, so a dance marathon is a long time of dancing. Adding late-night shows it happens at night, so the phrase means 'an event of prolonged dancing that lasts late into the night'.
