burn the midnight oil

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

• Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  Play

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.

39 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Arabic: أشعل فانوس الليل — work through the night
• Catalan: cremar-se les celles — work through the night
• Chinese Mandarin: 開夜車 /开夜车 (kāi yèchē) — work through the night
• Chinese Mandarin: 焚膏繼晷 /焚膏继晷 (féngāojìguǐ) — work through the night
• Chinese Mandarin: 挑燈夜戰 /挑灯夜战 (tiǎodēngyèzhàn) — work through the night
• Czech: pracovat dlouho do noci — work through the night
• Czech: ponocovat — work through the night
• Czech: pracovat dnem i nocí — work through the night
• Dutch: tot laat in de nacht werken — work through the night
• Dutch: het nachtje doordoen — work through the night
• Finnish: valvoa yötä myöten — work through the night
• French: travailler tard le soir — work through the night
• French: bûcher — work through the night
• French: faire nuit blanche — work through the night
• German: bis spät in die Nacht arbeiten — work through the night
• German: die Nacht zum Tage machen — work through the night
• Hebrew: לילה לבן — work through the night
• Hungarian: késő éjszakáig tanul — work through the night
• Hungarian: éjjel-nappal tanul — work through the night
• Hungarian: éjszakázik — work through the night
• Irish: déan airneán — work through the night
• Italian: fare le ore piccole — work through the night
• Italian: passare la notte in bianco — work through the night
• Japanese: 徹夜する (tetsuya suru) — work through the night
• Latin: lūcūbrō — work through the night
• Latvian: strādāt pa naktīm — work through the night
• Polish: pracować do późnej nocy — work through the night
• Portuguese: passar a noite em claro — work through the night
• Portuguese: virar a noite — work through the night
• Portuguese: fazer uma direta — work through the night
• Russian: полуно́чничать (polunóčničatʹ) — work through the night
• Russian: засиж́иваться (zasiž́ivatʹsja) — work through the night
• Slovak: pracovať dlho do noci — work through the night
• Slovak: pracovať vo dne v noci — work through the night
• Spanish: hacer días y noches — work through the night
• Spanish: quemarse las pestañas — work through the night
• Swedish: dygna — work through the night
• Swedish: låta flitens lampa lysa — work through the night
• Tagalog: magsunog ng kilay — work through the night