overnight

Formsovernights, overnighting, overnighted

Pluralovernights

1. 1
   adverb

   During or throughout the night, especially the evening or night that has just passed.

   Temperatures dropped sharply overnight, and the roads froze solid.

   The bakers prepare the dough and let it rise overnight.

   Note

   The oldest sense carries the word's history in miniature: Old English ofer niht, "through the night," built from over and night. It can also look back rather than through, to the evening just gone. In N. Ingelo's A Discourse Concerning Repentance (1677), a man "drunk overnight" sees his danger "the next day." Modern use favors the through-the-night reading, as in let it run overnight.

2. 2
   adjective

   Taking place during the hours between dusk and dawn.

   The hospital keeps a small overnight staff on each ward.

   Heavy overnight rain left the fields waterlogged by morning.

   Similarnighttime, nocturnal

   Oppositedaytime

3. 3
   adjective

   Completed or carried out before the following morning.

   The lab guaranteed an overnight turnaround on the blood test.

   Customers can choose overnight shipping at checkout for a small fee.

   Similarnext-day

   Note

   Where the dusk-to-dawn adjective says when something happens, this one says when it is finished: the work runs through the night and the result is ready by morning. Overnight delivery and overnight oats both belong here, and Julie Webber's 1988 article on Federal Express speaks of a whole "overnight market." The test is the morning: an overnight ferry travels at night, while an overnight package is waiting at breakfast.

4. 4
   adverbfiguratively

   Within a very short, unspecified period of time, as if all at once.

   The small bakery became a citywide sensation overnight.

   Public opinion on the policy shifted almost overnight.

   Similarsuddenly, instantly, immediately

   Oppositegradually, slowly

   Note

   Here the night has become a figure for suddenness, and the clock no longer matters. What counts is that the change felt abrupt. The adverb moves freely in the sentence. It can open it (Overnight, the actress became a relic), close it, or even sit before the verb, as in "you can't overnight turn everyone into an expert." Almost or seemed to softens it when the speed is only an impression.

5. 5
   verbintransitive

   To spend the night somewhere; to stay in a place for a single night.

   The delegates overnighted in the capital before the summit began.

   Truckers sometimes overnight at rest stops along the highway.

   Similarstay, sleep, lodge, stop

   Note

   The verb is a late arrival, dating from the late 19th century. It may owe something to German übernachten, though it could equally have grown up on its own. It takes no object: travelers overnight in a city or at a rest stop. The spelling has wavered, and Colin Jones's The Great Nation (2002) writes "he never over-nighted there." The inflected forms, however, are written solid: overnights, overnighting, overnighted.

6. 6
   adjective

   Of an event or trip for which the participants stay through the night.

   She signed her son up for an overnight summer camp.

   The company hosted an overnight workshop at a country lodge.

   Similarresidential, sleepaway

7. 7
   verbUStransitive

   To ship an item by a service that delivers it the following day.

   The firm overnighted the closing documents to its client.

   If you overnight the package today, it should arrive tomorrow.

   Note

   An American shipping verb, related to the verb of staying the night but transitive and businesslike. It takes the thing being sent and often a recipient too, in the double-object pattern of send or mail: we can overnight you the documents. Because the usage is American, a reader elsewhere may find "send it overnight" plainer.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   A stay of a single night, especially in a hotel or other lodging facility.

   Her schedule allowed only a brief overnight between connecting flights.

   The conference package includes two overnights at the resort.

   Similarstopover, layover

9. 9
   nouncountable

   An item that is delivered or completed before the following morning.

   The mailroom sorts the overnights first thing each day.

   She flagged the proposal as an overnight to ensure a quick turnaround.

10. 10
    nouncountableplural

    Viewership ratings for a television show published the morning after broadcast, which may be revised later.

    The network celebrated when the overnights showed record numbers.

    An impressive overnight gave the new drama an early boost.

    Note

    Television's word for the first look at an audience is almost always plural, the overnights, and often branded, as in the Nielsen overnights. Industry talk sets them beside fuller measures. In A. D. Brown's News-Daze (2006), a critic holds "the hard numbers on the June book plus the recent Nielsen overnights." A strong overnight is early news, not the final verdict.

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