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late night

late night

42 2.0
A time late in the evening when people stay awake to work or finish tasks
  • noun
  • /leɪt naɪt/
translation icon : horas tardías de la noche
  • Doc was working a lot of late nights, but all I was thinking about was the baby.
  • work late nights
  • spend late nights
  • late nights and weekends

There was a like late night come home.

Examples

  • Well, he probably had a late night too.

  • It can be hard for them, what with the late nights and early mornings and running after kids, so I try to help out as much as I can.

  • It's a new take on late night TV.

  • Well, I had a late night.

  • You must be pretty good after all those late nights.

  • "Well, we're all very tired from the late night," says Zirkelback.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • We've got late night pizza and chicken.

  • His older brother's face was shiny with sweat from a late-night drinking bout.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • While Jack Parr was the original late-night talk show host, Johnny Carson defined that role.

    Blog text (9)
  • After a long and exhausting day at work, she returned home from a late night at the office.

Synonyms

late-night hour
vslate night
1 3.7

The late part of the night when most people are asleep

covers evening times and moments when someone stays awake working

How Late

midnight
798 1.0
late night
42 2.0
evening
1.0

Surface Forms

late night singular
late nights plural

Morphology

late + night

The meaning 'a time late in the evening or staying up late' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'late' (occurring near the end) with 'night' (the nighttime period). This adjective + noun composition follows a standard, cross-linguistic pattern and would be immediately inferable by a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.

Etymology

Late night comes from the simple image of someone still awake or at work after dark: late (after the usual time) and night (the dark hours). So the phrase now means 'a time very late in the evening', often when someone stays up or works late.