what is burning the midnight oil?

Answer 1

Working extra hours, working all hours of the day, staying up late to work or study.

Answer 2

To work late into the night. Originally this was by the light of an oil lamp or candle. More recently, the phrase is used figuratively, alluding back its use before electric lighting.

Origin

The English author Francis Quarles wrote in Emblemes, 1635:

Wee spend our mid-day sweat, or mid-night oyle;
Wee tyre the night in thought; the day in toyle.

At that time there was a verb for working late by candlelight - elucubrate. Henry Cockeram defined that in his The English dictionarie, or an interpreter of hard English words, 1623:

"Elucubrate, to doe a thing by candlelight."

Clearly, we no longer have much call for that word and it has fallen out of use. Although it is probably some years since anyone needed to do it in reality the phrase 'burning the midnight oil' is still in everyday use. Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton released an album called The Right Combination/Burning the Midnight Oil, in 1972.

Answer 3

"Burning the midnight oil" is an expression, an English idiom, that means you are staying up late into the night to finish an important job. College students often burn the midnight oil in order to get all their homework done. Unless they cheat by getting the answers on Y!A.

Answer 4

Staying up late at night. Working
by the light of an oil lamp.
It's an old saying.

Answer 5

Generally, it mean staying up till the wee hours of night studying, or working on something.

Answer 6

Working late. Often very late.

Answer 7

its an expression.....harking back to the days of oil lamps....it means instead of extinguishing the lamp to go to bed, you stay up later and get important work done

Answer 8

Staying up really late.

Answer 9

Staying up all night answering these stupid questions.

Answer 10

Working/studing all night long.