Word.ws English Dictionary

burn the midnight oil

burn the midnight oil verb: to work studiously, especially late into the night.

Verb

burn the midnight oil (third-person singular simple present burns the midnight oil, present participle burning the midnight oil, simple past and past participle burned the midnight oil or burnt the midnight oil)

  1. (idiomatic) To work studiously, especially late into the night.
    • Near-synonym: pull an all-nighter
    • He was burning the midnight oil to finish his paper.

burn the midnight oil meaning in Tagalog and Arabic

burn the midnight oil in Tagalog

work through the night
magsunog ng kilay

burn the midnight oil in Arabic

work through the night
أشعل فانوس الليل

Synonyms of burn the midnight oil

Forms of burn the midnight oil

third-person singular presentburns the midnight oil
present participleburning the midnight oil
past participleburned the midnight oil
pastburned the midnight oil
past participleburnt the midnight oil
pastburnt the midnight oil

Origin of burn the midnight oil

Originally referring to the act of burning lamp oil in oil lamps for light at night. The collocation midnight oil in its literal sense is attested from mid 17th c.

Questions about burn the midnight oil

What does burn the midnight oil mean?
Burn the midnight oil means to work studiously, especially late into the night.
What is burn the midnight oil in Tagalog?
Burn the midnight oil in Tagalog is magsunog ng kilay. See Burn the midnight oil meaning in Tagalog.
What part of speech is burn the midnight oil?
Burn the midnight oil is a verb.
What is the past tense of burn the midnight oil?
The past tense of burn the midnight oil is burned the midnight oil.

Words near burn the midnight oil in the dictionary

  1. burn someone's ears
  2. burn that bridge when one comes to it
  3. burn the candle at both ends
  4. burn the coal
  5. burn the coal, pay the toll
  6. burn the midnight oil
  7. burn the roof
  8. burn the water
  9. burn through
  10. burn time
  11. burn times

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: burn the midnight oil (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-burn the midnight oil.ogg.

Cite this entry: “burn the midnight oil.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/burn_the_midnight_oil. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.