graveyard watch
- noun
- /ˈɡreɪvˌjɑrd wɑtʃ/
- Jargon
:
turno de noche
- During the summer months, he often took the graveyard watch at the factory, working from midnight to 8 a.m.
Examples
-
She was assigned the graveyard watch on board the ship, ensuring safety during the quiet nighttime hours.
-
She looked more alert than he felt, but then she had the graveyard watch this week, so she was supposed to be alert.
Fiction book (1999) -
Many students find it challenging to work the graveyard watch, as staying awake late at night is tough.
Synonyms
52
2.1
Work that happens during the night or the people who do it
15
3.9
A night work period from midnight to early morning
4
4.7
A time when people guard a place at night
1
9.6
A night shift on a ship between midnight and four in the morning
The time on a ship from midnight to four in the morning when crew are on duty
Antonyms
How Late
Surface Forms
Morphology
graveyard + watch
The compound pairs 'graveyard' (a cemetery, with night/dark connotations) with 'watch' (a scheduled guard or shift), so a learner who knows both words can plausibly infer a night-time or late shift. However, the use here is metaphorical (extension from cemetery/night to any late-night work period) and could be misinterpreted as a literal guard at a cemetery, so the relation is only partially predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
Graveyard watch uses graveyard (a quiet cemetery) and watch (a duty or time of guarding). One popular idea is that this duty happens in the very still hours of the night, like a graveyard, so the phrase came to mean 'a late-night work shift'.