English · Idiom Historical

burning the midnight oil

Preserved but no longer current.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Sitting up late, especially when engaged on literary work.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Đứng dậy muộn vào ban đêm, đặc biệt khi làm việc văn học

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)

Sources & notes

Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.

Topics: Time Historical slang (1800s)

Common questions

What does “burning the midnight oil” mean?

Sitting up late, especially when engaged on literary work.

Is “burning the midnight oil” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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