night shift
- noun
- /naɪt ʃɪft/
- Susan returned to the nursing unit for her first night shift after being off for several days.
- work the night shift
- night shift working
So let's let them do the swing shift or night shift for maybe four days in a week.
- So let's let them do the swing shift or night shift for maybe four days in a week.
- The second group that is particularly vulnerable are night shift workers.
- And so when I came home it, I had to work the night shift.
- Me and Jack, we, we often do what we like to call a night shift.
- So Walmart employees, when they're working the night shift, restocking shelves and cleaning the premises, can be locked in the store overnight.
- You have called the night shift and two girls are making out.
- And your daughter does the night shift at the quickie crap.
Examples
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Matthew's mother works the night shift at the hospital, so I pick him up from school.
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His father worked the night shift on the assembly line of a factory.
Fiction book (1995) -
Guys, I gotta get ready to work a night shift, okay?
-
Hey, how was the night shift, old Ed?
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And they need someone to work the night shift and they asked me.
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I thought you were taking the night shift.
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Though I was used to it, I remember my first night shift.
Fiction book (2001) -
I get off the night shift at four AM and you're not home?!
Fiction book (1993) -
Two recent studies explore the relationship between night-shift work and health risks.
Academic text (2014) -
She is finally getting used to her night shift at the hospital after three months.
Synonyms
A night work period from midnight to early morning
A night shift on a ship between midnight and four in the morning
How Late
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a work period during the night' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'night' (the nightly interval) with 'shift' (a period of work or duty). This straightforward noun+noun composition follows common English compounding and similar patterns cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The phrase night shift comes from old factories and hospitals where people worked after dark. A group would take a shift, a 'turn' to work through the night under lamps, so the phrase now means 'a period of work during the night'.