midnightn.adj.
/ˈmɪdnʌɪt/, U.S. /ˈmɪdˌnaɪt/ A. n. † 4. Mother Midnight, Mrs Midnight: see mother n.1, Mrs n.1 Obsolete.
1.
a. The middle of the night; spec. (now the usual sense) 12 o'clock at night.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > day and night > night > [noun] > midnight
midnighteOE
middle nighteOE
noontide1568
noon1605
witching hour1762
long hour1807
midnight1813
midnight-tide1918
zero hour1939
eOE Cleopatra Gloss. in W. G. Stryker Lat.-Old Eng. Gloss. in MS Cotton Cleopatra A.III (Ph.D. diss., Stanford Univ.) (1951) 262 Intempestum, midniht.
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 2nd Ser. (Cambr. Gg.3.28) xxxix. 330 Hwæt getacnað seo midniht, buton seo deope nytennys.
OE Byrhtferð Enchiridion (Ashm.) (1995) ii. iii. 137 Seo niht hafað seofon todælednyssa..feorðe intempestiuum, þæt ys midniht oððe unworclic tima.
a1225 (c1200) Vices & Virtues (1888) 125 Alswa wel onbuten mid-niht alswa on mid-daiȝ.
c1225 (?c1200) St. Katherine (1973) 1733 (MED) Ha wenden from hire, abuten þe midniht.
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) Judges vii. 19 Gedeon wente in..begynny[n]ge þe wacchis of þe mydnyȝt [a1425 L.V. of mydnyȝt].
a1450 (?c1421) J. Lydgate Siege Thebes (Arun.) (1911) 120 (MED) I Charge ȝow, rise not at Mydnyght.
1483 ( tr. G. Deguileville Pilgrimage of Soul (Caxton) (1859) v. xiv. 81 Sodenly the belle gan sowne the hour of mydnyght.
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Matt. xxv. 6 At mydnight there was a crye made.
1575 T. Churchyard 1st Pt. Chippes f. 10 The French came forth, at midnight.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Cymbeline (1623) i. iii. 32 At the sixt houre of Morne, at Noone, at Midnight . View more context for this quotation
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost ix. 58 By Night he fled, and at Midnight return'd From compassing the Earth. View more context for this quotation
1726 J. Thomson Winter 9 As yet, 'tis Midnight's Reign.
1768 L. Sterne Sentimental Journey II. 206 I..turn'd and turn'd again, till a full hour after midnight.
1804 M. Lewis Jrnl. 22 July in Jrnls. Lewis & Clark Exped. (1986) 412 The day is recconed on Civil time, (i e) commencing at midnight.
1813 R. Wilson Private Diary (1862) II. 52 At midnight I entered my carriage.
1850 C. Kingsley Alton Locke I. i. 2 As the midnight brightened into dawn, and the glaring lamps grew pale.
1882 C. Pebody Eng. Journalism xix. 143 There are not many subjects upon which, if he takes up his pen at ten o'clock, he cannot by midnight turn out a chatty and readable column for the next morning.
1915 R. Brooke Let. 12 Mar. in Coll. Poems (1918) p. cxlii We were allowed ashore from 5 to midnight.
1967 S. Terkel Division Street i. 32 The way people are driving cars with no consideration... You ought to hear them screech around here at midnight.
1987 N. Hinton Buddy's Song xvi. 100 Midnight was chiming on Big Ben.
b. An instance or occurrence of midnight.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > day and night > night > [noun] > midnight
midnighteOE
middle nighteOE
noontide1568
noon1605
witching hour1762
long hour1807
midnight1813
midnight-tide1918
zero hour1939
1813 P. B. Shelley Queen Mab v. 66 Specks of tinsel, fixed in heaven To light the midnights of his native town!
1903 J. London Call of Wild vii He loved to run in the dim twilight of the summer midnights.
1990 J. Harjo In Mad Love & War 1 We could not contain our terror and clowned our way through a season of false midnights.
2. Intense darkness or gloom; a period of intense darkness.
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the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > [noun] > period of darkness or gloom
midnight1593
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > want of knowledge, ignorance > intellectual ignorance > [noun] > period of
midnight1593
dark ages1824
1593 B. Barnes Parthenophil & Parthenophe 16 Her forheads threatfull cloudes from hope remou'd me Till midnight rear'd on the mid-noctiall line.
c1665 L. Hutchinson Mem. Col. Hutchinson (1973) 38 When the dawne of the Gospell began to breake upon this Isle after the darke midnight of Papacy.
1781 W. Cowper Charity 376 Philosophy,..while his province is the reasoning part, Has still a veil of midnight on his heart.
1867 I. I. Hayes Open Polar Sea xxxv. 394 We were now in the full blaze of summer. Six eventful months had passed over since the Arctic midnight shrouded us in gloom, and now we had reached the Arctic mid-day.
1879 F. W. Farrar Life & Work St. Paul I. iv. xv. 257 It was the darkest midnight of the world's history.
1929 W. B. Yeats Winding Stair 19 Or found a subterranean rest On the maternal midnight of my breast.
1963 M. L. King Strength to Love vi. 43 But alas! science cannot now rescue us, for even the scientist is lost in the terrible midnight of our age.
3. figurative. The crucial hour, the moment when something reaches a crisis or comes to an end. Cf. eleventh hour at eleventh adj. 1a, zero hour n. 1 and 2.
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the world > time > a suitable time or opportunity > [noun] > critical or decisive moment
articlea1398
prick?c1422
crise?1541
push1563
in the nick1565
jump1598
concurrence1605
cardo1609
(the) nick of time (also occasionally opportunity, etc.)1610
edgea1616
climacterical1628
climacteric1633
in the nick-time1650
moment1666
turning-point1836
watershed1854
psychological moment1871
psychical moment1888
moment of truth1932
crunch1939
cruncher1947
high noon1955
break point1959
defining moment1967
midnight1976
1976 West Lancs. Evening Gaz. 13 Dec. 1/4 Perhaps it was understating it to say it's the 11th hour—for the industry it is very nearly midnight.
1989 North West Tel. (Port Hedland) 7 June 1/4 It is getting close to midnight for Robe River but we expect they will fight it out. They are pulling up the drawbridge and getting ready for an all-out scruff.
1991 P. Kussi tr. M. Kundera Immortality vi. vii. 290 When a person has talent for an activity that has passed its midnight (or has not yet reached its first hour), what happens to his gift?
B. adj.
1. Occurring, done, etc., at midnight; of or relating to midnight.
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the world > time > day and night > night > [adjective] > midnight
midnighta1393
mesonoxian1623
a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) v. 396 That was ate mydnyht tyde.
a1450 (?c1421) J. Lydgate Siege Thebes (Arun.) (1911) 1186 (MED) Til it was passed almost mydnygh [v.r. mydnyght] hour.
1582 S. Batman Vppon Bartholome, De Proprietatibus Rerum vi. 425 This time, the Cock was ready to sing his midnight song.
1637 J. Milton Comus 5 Meane while welcome Joy, and Feast, Midnight shout, and revelrie.
1684 T. Southerne Disappointment iii. i. 20 I own am to blame, to call thee forth Into the rawness of a midnight Air.
1737 R. Challoner Catholick Christian Instructed xxii. 210 As to the Midnight-Office, King David tells us,..that he arose at midnight to confess to God.
1744 E. Young Complaint: Night the Seventh 61 Survey this Midnight Scene.
1787 Pennsylvania Gaz. 8 Aug. 3/3 These facts are laid before the public..as a hint to masters to watch the conduct of their servants, who may, in these nocturnal excursions, commit a greater outrage upon their property than the midnight robber.
1815 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 70 About fifty armed men came..and swore all the inhabitants to be faithful to the new system enacted by the midnight legislators of this country [sc. Kilkenny].
1846 T. Cooper Baron's Yule Feast 16 The midnight lamp gleams dull and pale,—..and the warrior knight Embraceth his love in the meek moonlight.
1884 J. G. Whittier in Harper's Mag. Jan. 179/1 The midnight sword-dance of the northern sky.
1905 Westm. Gaz. 26 Sept. 7/3 The mishap occurred to the midnight train from Liverpool-street to Norwich.
1931 H. Crane Let. 16 Jan. (1965) 364 This blacksmith aroused considerable conjecture by his midnight absences.
1991 Working Terrier Feb. 12/3 The midnight breeze carried the pungent scent of rabbit to its nostrils luring the dog to its source.
2. As dark as midnight. Cf. midnight dark adj. at Compounds 2.
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the world > matter > light > darkness or absence of light > [adjective] > dark as or with night
nightlyc1450
midnight1664
1664 S. Butler Hudibras: Second Pt. ii. ii. 122 It is an Antichristian Opera, Much us'd in midnight-times of Popery.
1755 E. Young Centaur 99 Dungeon them in midnight Dens of Fraud and Destruction.
1792 Pennsylvania Gaz. 11 July 3/2 A long projected angry looking cloud, and so impregnated with midnight darkness, that..the atmosphere for some minutes was so overspread with gloom, that objects ever so little remote, became nearly invisible.
1850 National Era 22 Aug. 135 Its light, if such it was, was as the light Of breaking waters on a midnight sea, Where ever storm and darkness and affright Mingle perpetually.
1855 R. Browning Bishop Blougram 253 What's midnight doubt before the dayspring's faith?
1860 N. Hawthorne Marble Faun I. xi. 123 In all that labyrinth of midnight paths.
1981 A. Sillitoe Second Chance (Devil's Almanack) 146 Lady Delmonden's black cat shimmered its midnight fur through the tall lawn-grass.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
midnight-shrouded adj. rare
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1906 N.E.D. at Midnight sb. Midnight-shrouded.
midnight-woven adj. rare
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1810 J. Conder et al. Associate Minstrels 76 Then desolation's midnight-woven pall Shall in one sable fold envelope all.
C2. † midnight banquet n. Obsolete a banquet which takes place at midnight; spec. = midnight feast n.† midnight cart n. Obsolete a cart for carrying away night soil.
midnight appointment n. U.S. History a political appointment made during the last hours of an administration; spec. one of those made in such circumstances by President John Adams.
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1801 T. Jefferson Appointments 5 Mar. in Papers (2006) XXXIII. 674 [John W.] Kittera one of the midnight appointments not being confirmed.
1823 T. Jefferson Let. 12 June in Writings (1984) 1474 Among the midnight appointments of Mr. Adams, were commissions to some federal justices of the peace for Alexandria.
1916 Let. 25 May in Mississippi Valley Hist. Rev. (1948) 35 480 James Marshall was at that time an assistant justice of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, to which a biographical dictionary adds the information that his was also a ‘midnight appointment’.
midnight ball n. a ball beginning at midnight, or taking place late at night.
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1693 J. Dryden tr. Juvenal in J. Dryden et al. tr. Juvenal Satires vi. 105 Lewdly Dancing at a Midnight-Ball.
a1762 Lady M. W. Montagu Lett. & Wks. (1861) II. 455 Now softening eunuchs sing Italian airs, The dancing dame to midnight ball repairs.
1873 R. E. Egerton-Warburton Hunting Songs (new ed.) 35 Seen seated in the banquet-hall, Or view'd afoot at midnight ball.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > meal > feast > [noun] > night feast
night-wake1521
midnight banquet1715
midnight feast1734
1715 A. Pope Temple of Fame 14 These..call'd th'unbody'd Shades To Midnight Banquets in the glimmering Glades.
1896 C. M. Yonge in C. R. Coleridge C. M. Yonge (1903) iii. 114 She invited the other young ladies to a midnight banquet..in their night-caps and dressing gowns.
midnight basketball n. U.S. basketball played between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., organized as a measure to reduce youth crime.
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1988 Washington Post 10 Oct. c4/5 Some initiatives have come from neighborhood groups—including..the Prince George's Community College Midnight Basketball League.
1992 Boston Globe 1 Aug. 6/2 Gov. Bill Clinton came to the community center basketball court expecting to..deliver a light speech to the youths in a Midnight Basketball League.
1998 R. Price Freedomland vi. 108 He had been putting in sixty hours a week..organizing midnight basketball tournaments.
midnight black adj. and n. (a) adj. of an intense black colour; (b) n. this colour.
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the world > matter > colour > named colours > black or blackness > [noun] > typical blackness > as night
midnight black1846
1846 R. H. Horne Ballad Romances 145 Ten horsemen sprang, with sudden bound, In armour midnight black!
1880 S. Coolidge Verses 35 The sleeping houses stood in midnight black.
1925 J. Gregory Bab of Backwoods xvi. 201 Monte made out vaguely the slim form in white, a whitish blur against a midnight-black curtain.
1991 R. R. McCameron Boys' Life i. i. 8 My socks were white as dove wings and my Keds midnight black.
midnight blue n. and adj. (a) n. a very dark shade of blue; (b) adj. having this colour.
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the world > matter > colour > named colours > blue or blueness > [noun] > dark blue
bicec1430
navy blue1780
marine blue1803
midnight blue1810
Adelaide1831
Oxford blue1842
butcher's blue1851
gros bleu1870
marine1871
gendarme blue1884
navy1884
butcher1892
matelot1927
1810 R. Southey Curse of Kehama xi. 119 Trembling through each deepening hue, It settled in a midnight blue.
1886 E. Fawcett Romance & Revery 34 Viewed by one glad look, as mild lightnings view Some deep cloud-cloister of the midnight blue!
1916 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 8 July 12/1 (advt.) The same style [of shoe] in jungle brown, midnight blue and bronze.
1935 R. Hichens Afterglow 86 A silken collar and a midnight blue tie.
1986 High Life (Brit. Airways) July 80/3 The midnight blue uniforms of the flight deck crew with their platinum braiding follow the cut and style of the uniform worn by customer contact staff.
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the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > sanitation > privy or latrine > emptying or cleaning of privies > [noun] > cart
nightcart1642
midnight cart1698
1698 J. Collier Short View Immorality Eng. Stage 204 To present Nature under every Appearance would be an odd undertaking. A Midnight Cart, or a Dunghil would be no Ornamental Scene.
1796 A. Seward Llangollen Vale 2 Thro' the grass-grown streets..Slow moves the midnight Cart, heapt with the naked Dead.
midnight cowboy n. U.S. colloquial a male prostitute.
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1965 J. Herliman (title) Midnight cowboy.
1972 R. Bloch Night-world (1974) xiv. 89 On Sunset Strip the vibes were good..the whole street filled with midnight cowboys.
1983 N. Giovanni Those who ride Right Winds 5 This book is dedicated to the courage and fortitude of those who ride the night winds—who are the day trippers and midnight cowboys.
1998 N.Y. Times 19 July i. 21/1 There are still a few midnight cowboys out there who savor memories of squalor gathered on the streets of the old Times Square, before it was pasteurized.
midnight dark adj. as dark as midnight; cf. sense B. 2.
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1601 J. Weever Mirror of Martyrs sig. D8 Whilst there I lie in midnight-dark immur'd, My friends emblazoned forth mine injurie.
1712 E. Ward Quack-vintners 6 That Sweetners, when they've play'd some Villains Trick,..May to some Midnight Dark house make their Way.
1871 E. H. Bickersteth Two Brothers 203 Is the rush-candle out, mother? For all is midnight dark.
1920 L. Binyon Secret 28 And at my feet, like a word of an unknown tongue, Was the midnight-dark bloom of the delicate pansy.
midnight feast n. a feast or snack at midnight; spec. a night-time feast held by children in their bedroom or dormitory, usually without the knowledge of their parents, teachers, etc.
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the world > food and drink > food > meal > feast > [noun] > night feast
night-wake1521
midnight banquet1715
midnight feast1734
1734 M. Chandler Descr. Bath (ed. 2) 6 Soft are his Slumbers, balmy is his Rest, His Veins not boiling from the Midnight Feast.
a1839 W. M. Praed Lillian & Other Poems (1852) 125 Away..with the canting priest, Who comes uncalled to a midnight feast.
1869 Appletons' Jrnl. 28 Aug. 53 It was called among themselves the Lobster Club, because, when formed originally, a lobster..constituted the modest staple of their midnight feasts.
1938 A. Christie Appointment with Death i. vii. 52 This is rather fun... Rather like the midnight feasts we used to have at school.
1964 C. Hodder-Williams Main Experiment i. vi. 57 ‘When will you be back from London?’ ‘Late tonight.’ ‘We'll have a midnight feast, then.’
1989 C. Harkness Time of Grace i. 33 We smuggled food into the school and held ‘midnight feasts’.
midnight hour n. the hour of midnight; each of the hours around midnight.
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c1425 J. Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) iv. 6306 (MED) Þei, allas..At mydnyȝt hour a-bedde laie slepynge.
a1450 [see sense B. 1]. 1596 Edward III (1897) iii. ii. 20 A tongue-tied feare hath made a midnight houre, And speeches sleepe through all the waking regions.
1645 J. Milton Il Penseroso in Poems 40 Or let my Lamp at midnight hour, Be seen in som high lonely Towr.
1773 M. Warren Adulateur ii The ghost of freedom haunts his midnight hours.
1864 W. W. Skeat tr. J. L. Uhland Songs & Ballads 319 Within the gray church-tower The hammer strikes the midnight hour.
1997 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Aug. 54/3 The ‘stroke of the midnight hour’ proclaimed India's independence on August 15, 1947.
midnight lamp n. a lamp burnt at midnight; frequently figurative or allusively, one used to burn the midnight oil.
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a1709 J. Philips Poems (1927) 55 Oft at Midnight Lamp [I] Ply my brain-racking Studies.
1820 J. Keats Hyperion: a Fragm. i, in Lamia & Other Poems 155 So also shuddered he—Not at dog's howl,..Or prophesyings of the midnight lamp.
a1995 D. Davie On Edmund Spencer's House Irel. in Poems & Melodramas (1996) 7 But every so often still, the unruly muse Yearns for the flowery noon, the midnight lamp.
midnight mass n. [ < midnight n. + mass n.1; compare French messe de minuit (a1696)] Roman Catholic Church and Anglican Church a mass or Eucharist celebrated at or shortly before midnight, esp. on Christmas Eve.
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1685 S. Wesley Maggots 22 As sweet as those which quiv'ring Monks in days of Y'ore, With us did roar..When they were ferretted up to Midnight Mass.
a1722 J. Lauder Jrnls. (1900) 118 The rest of our Scotsmen ware so curious as to go hear Midnight Masses.
1866 G. M. Hopkins Lett. to R. Bridges (1955) 16 It is not much more than an hour to Xmas day: I am sitting up for the midnight mass.
1960 A. Christie Adventure of Christmas Pudding 33 Who's going to brave the snow and go to midnight mass?
1984 B. Reid So Much Love ix. 163 They went into the church..to have a lovely midnight mass.
midnight matinée n. a special theatrical performance presented at midnight; also figurative.
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society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > [noun] > a performance > performance at specific time
morning performance1827
matinee1848
mat1914
first house1930
midnight matinée1952
1952 W. Granville Dict. Theatr. Terms 118 Midnight matinée.
1963 Daily Express 25 Sept. 1/4 I don't honestly see why the Stationery Office have to put on a midnight matinee for the Denning Report, even if it has got a U Certificate.
midnight movie n. a film, usually regarded as of low quality, shown or broadcast late at night.
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1976 Sunday Times (Lagos) 3 Oct. 13/4 I end the day with my Saturday ritual: The midnight movie.
1993 Spy May 12/3 Discussing Ed Wood recently, Canton moaned, ‘It's a midnight movie.’
midnight oil n. figurative laborious or extra effort, as in studying late at night (cf. oil n.1 4); usually in to burn (etc.) the midnight oil: to sit up or work (as by lamplight) late into the night, to work diligently or conscientiously.
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the world > physical sensation > sleeping and waking > state of being awake > be or remain awake [verb (intransitive)] > intentionally
watchc1000
to sit upc1450
stay1526
to burn (etc.) the midnight oil1635
to set up1697
to wake it1766
to watch up1852
to wait up1855
to stop up1857
society > education > learning > study > [noun] > laborious study
midnight oil1635
oil1675
1635 F. Quarles Emblemes ii. ii. 70 Wee spend our mid-day sweat, our mid-night oyle; Wee tyre the night in thought; the day, in toyle.
1650 G. Daniel Trinarchodia: Crastini Anim. 16 As were that worth our Braines, and Midnight Oyle.
a1763 W. Shenstone Elegies xi, in Wks. Verse & Prose (1764) I. 29 I trimm'd my lamp, consum'd the midnight oil.
1812 Edinb. Rev. July 227 He may have..wasted the midnight oil in preparing..instruction.
1830 N. Amer. Rev. Jan. 279 We hold something in our hands which is to interest and occupy us till bed-time, perchance enchain us beyond our sober bed-time, and find us burning the actual midnight oil.
1882 W. Ballantine Some Exper. Barrister's Life iii. 32 I cannot say that I burnt much midnight oil.
1972 Guardian 4 Oct. 1/1 The speech bore distinct marks of being something of a midnight-oil effort.
1989 Satellite Times Feb. 4/2 Burning midday and midnight oil we came up with what you have in your hands.
midnight prayer n. a prayer offered at midnight or in the middle of the night.
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a1711 T. Ken Edmund v, in Wks. (1721) II. 141 The Prince, who to his Midnight Pray'r arose, Himself had re-surrendred to Repose.
1803 E. Wynne Diary 25 Dec. (1940) III. iv. 98 Xmas Day. Sunday. We had midnight Prayers and a Reveillon.
1898 H. G. Wells War of Worlds ii. vii. 271 I recalled my mental states from the midnight prayer to the foolish card-playing.
1998 E. Field Frieze for Temple of Love 76 The muezzin warbles out his midnight prayer.
midnight requisition n. and v. U.S. Military slang (a) n. an unauthorized taking of supplies at night; (b) v. transitive to take (supplies) at night without authority.
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1946 S. Wilson Voy. to Somewhere xvii. 105 ‘A midnight requisition!’ said Mr. Stuart. ‘By God, I'll have to do that myself!’
1985 W. A. Roskey Muffled Shots 82 A group of drunken ‘bachelors’ would make a ‘midnight requisition’ of a truck.
1994 Rochesterian (Rochester, N.Y.) June 23/3 We ‘midnight requisitioned’ that ammo off those trucks almost before the drivers knew what was happening.
1999 San Antonio (Texas) Express-News (Nexis) 7 Mar. 6 g Burkett's ‘principal duty was the ancient and honorable “midnight requisition”’.
midnight requisitioning n. U.S. Military slang the unauthorized taking of supplies at night.
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1960 M. Caidin Black Thursday 73 And of course there was always the shortage of coal, and the ‘midnight requisitioning’ by officers and enlisted men.
midnight sun n. the sun as seen at midnight or (more generally) at any time of night during the summer in the polar regions.
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the world > the universe > sun > [noun] > at specific time or position
suneOE
rising sun1557
setting sun1560
noon-sun1601
midnight sun1787
noon1858
1787 J. Barlow Vision of Columbus 179 Where midnight suns their happier beams display.
1827 R. Montgomery Age Reviewed ii. 211 All the tribe by Beazely was outdone, Who made, for novelty, a midnight sun! The purblind cocknies liked this wond'rous spell.
1857 Ld. Dufferin Lett. from High Latitudes (ed. 3) 316 The nights were even brighter than the days, and afforded Fitz an opportunity of taking some photographic views by the light of a midnight sun.
1909 R. W. Service Ballads of Cheechako 51 I smoke my pipe and I meditate in the light of the Midnight Sun.
1944 W. M. Smart Found. Astron. (ed. 2) iv. 74 The dates corresponding to S=10° are April 17 and August 28; hence between these dates the sun never sets and we have the phenomenon of the midnight sun.
1989 Holiday Which? Mar. 102/3 At Hammerfest you can see the Midnight Sun between 17 May and 28 July.
midnight-tide n. poetic midnight.
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the world > time > day and night > night > [noun] > midnight
midnighteOE
middle nighteOE
noontide1568
noon1605
witching hour1762
long hour1807
midnight1813
midnight-tide1918
zero hour1939
a1393 [see sense B. 1].
1762 S. Derrick Battle of Lora 19 Thy Face appear'd the Sun when Rains subside Or shone the gentler Moon at Midnight Tide.
1817 R. C. Sands Bridal of Vaumond ii. viii. 95 Ever at the midnight tide His food a hand unseen supplied.
1918 W. de la Mare Motley & Other Poems 4 At cold of midnight-tide.
midnight watch n. (a) = middle watch n. (a) at middle adj. and n. Compounds 1a (now historical); (b) chiefly Nautical, a watch or period of guard duty which ends or (esp.) begins at midnight; spec. = middle watch n. (b) at middle adj. and n. Compounds 1a.
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1609 Bible (Douay) I. Judges vii. 19 And Gedeon went in, and the three hundred that were with him,..the watch of midnight beginning, and raysing vp the watch men they began to sound with their trumpettes.]
1696 N. Tate & N. Brady New Version Psalms of David 267 With Zeal have I awak'd before The Midnight Watch was set.
1755 J. Brown Barbarossa iii. 48 The Midnight Watch gives Signal of our Meeting.
1851 H. Melville Moby-Dick cvii. 520 A certain grizzled wittiness; such as might have served to pass the time during the midnight watch on the bearded forecastle of Noah's ark.
1914 Washington Post 18 Jan. (Miscellany section) 2/3 I had the midnight watch, and when I turned out on the bridge at eight bells I found it was a very dark night.
1998 ‘Dick B.’ Good Morning! (rev. ed.) ii. 16 When the Israelites became subject to Roman power, most adopted the Roman method of dividing the watches... Midnight watch—9:00 p.m. to midnight.
2003 Spokesman-Rev. (Spokane, Washington) (Nexis) 6 Dec. a1 Denis Mikkelson told of being awakened from a sound sleep by the general quarters alarm on the USS West Virginia after standing the midnight watch.
midnight watching n. the action or practice of staying awake late at night; an instance of this.
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1644 J. Milton Areopagitica 21 Unlesse he carry all his considerate diligence, all his midnight watchings and expense of Palladian oil, to the hasty view of an unleisured licenser.
1797 M. Robinson Walsingham IV. lxxxv. 208 Mrs. Blagden perpetually attended her; Sir Sidney and Miss Hanbury by turns undertaking the task of midnight watching.
1865 R. W. Buchanan Idylls & Legends Inverburn 152 The woman sat Weeping full sore, her apron o'er a face Haggard with midnight watching.
1962 W. Everson Hazards of Holiness in Coll. Poems (1998) II. 178 I have lain long, lain long, Long in thy grasp am lain, Lord of the midnight watchings.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
† midnightv.
Obsolete.
1. transitive. To darken, as if in the darkness of midnight.Apparently an isolated use.
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the world > matter > light > darkness or absence of light > make dark [verb (transitive)] > involve in darkness
bedarka1393
bedarken1596
benight1610
midnight1628
1628 O. Felltham Resolves: 2nd Cent. lxi. sig. S7v Of all objects of sorrow, a distressed King is the most pittifull; because it presents vs most the frailety of Humanity; and cannot but most midnight the soule of him that is falne.
2. transitive. poetic. To cause to spend midnight in a place.Apparently an isolated use.
ΚΠ
1861 A. Smith Edwin of Deira 3 Midnighted thrice in wilderness he saw The far-meandering lake beneath the moon.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2020).
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n.adj.eOE
v.1628- tachometric
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- sweetscented olive
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- sweetseasoned
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