Word.ws English Dictionary

burnt the midnight oil

burnt the midnight oil is the simple past and past participle of burn the midnight oil.

Meaning of burn the midnight oil

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

Questions about burnt the midnight oil

What is burnt the midnight oil the simple past and past participle of?
Burnt the midnight oil is the simple past and past participle of burn the midnight oil.

Words near burnt the midnight oil in the dictionary

  1. burnt someone's ass
  2. burnt someone's ears
  3. burnt that bridge when one came to it
  4. burnt the candle at both ends
  5. burnt the coal
  6. burnt the midnight oil
  7. burnt the roof
  8. burnt the water
  9. burnt through
  10. burnt to a crisp
  11. burnt toast theory

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: burnt the midnight oil (page history and authors); 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.

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