around the clock
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
When something is done all day and all night without stopping.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
A 30-strong team has worked around the clock since midnight on Saturday to build the stage and seating area for the hall in readiness for the sell - out performance, which starts at 7.30pm this evening.
Engineers are still working around the clock to restore services at the Woodhouse exchange in Sheffield following a fire on October 25, which affected 13,000 customers.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Imported from Wikipedia “English-language idioms” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29), pending review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “around the clock” mean?
When something is done all day and all night without stopping.
Is “around the clock” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.