overnights

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of overnight.

   The network's overnights showed a strong lead-in audience for the new drama.

   He planned three overnights along the coast during the two-week road trip.

   Note

   Each countable use of the noun pluralizes the ordinary way, but the plural does different work in different trades. In television, the overnights are the viewership figures released the morning after a broadcast. They are provisional numbers that may be revised later, and that meaning is normally used in the plural. In travel, the word counts nights spent away, as in three overnights along the coast.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of overnight.

   The team overnights in a nearby town before each away game.

   Whenever the storm closes the pass, he overnights at the lodge until it clears.

   Note

   One present-tense form serves two verbs with different grammar. When it means "spend the night," it takes no object and usually a place phrase: the team overnights in a nearby town. In US usage it can also be transitive, meaning to send something for next-day delivery. The spelling matches the plural noun, so the sentence frame (a subject before it, an object or place after) shows which word it is.

   She overnights the signed contract to the client every Friday.

   If the part isn't in stock, the supplier overnights it from the warehouse.

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