English

Adverb

overnight ‎(not comparable)

1. Throughout the night.

   Let it run overnight and we'll check on it in the morning.‎

   • 1977, Agatha Christie, An Autobiography, Part II, chapter4:

     There was also hairdressing: hairdressing, too, really was hairdressing in those times — no running a comb through it and that was that. It was curled, frizzed, waved, put in curlers overnight, waved with hot tongs; […].

   • 2012 November 20, Nina Bernstein, “Storm Bared a Lack of Options for the Homeless in New York”, in New York Times:

     Overnight, as the storm bore down on urban flood zones, city officials ramped up emergency spaces to shelter thousands more people, mostly in public schools and colleges.

2. During a single night.

   They delivered the package overnight.‎

3. In a very short (but unspecified) amount of time.
   • 2012, Christoper Zara, Tortured Artists: From Picasso and Monroe to Warhol and Winehouse, the Twisted Secrets of the World's Most Creative Minds, part 1, chapter 1, 27:

     Overnight, the vivacious young actress became a caricature, a relic of the previous decade, whose hard-partying socialite image seemed frivolous and out of touch amid the ensuing years of the Great Depression.

   The change seemed to happen overnight.‎

Translations

Adjective

overnight ‎(not comparable)

1. Occurring between dusk and dawn.

   The overnight ferry docked at 10AM.

2. Complete before the next morning.

   Don't expect results overnight.

Translations

Verb

overnight ‎(third-person singular simple present overnights, present participle overnighting, simple past and past participle overnighted)

1. (intransitive) To stay overnight; to spend the night. [from 19th c.]
   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 128:

     His visits to Paris (which he had not allowed his son to visit until he was a teenager) became less frequent too: he never over-nighted there, for example, after 1744.

2. (transitive, US) To send something for delivery the next day. [from 20th c.]

   We can overnight you the documents for signature.

Translations

Noun

overnight ‎(plural overnights)

1. Items delivered or completed overnight.

   Have you looked at the overnights yet?

2. An overnight stay, especially in a hotel or other lodging facility.
3. (obsolete) The fore part of the previous night; yesterday evening.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

Translations