# What does ‘burn the midnight oil’ mean?

To “burn the midnight oil” means to work late into the night. The phrase appears in English from at least the 17th century; Brewer's records it as a long-standing idiom for late-night study by lamplight.

## What it means

- The phrase appears in English from at least the 17th century; Brewer's records it as a long-standing idiom for late-night study by lamplight.

## Action steps

1. Common in workplace and study talk.
2. Example: I burned the midnight oil to finish the report.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Internet Archive scan](https://archive.org/details/brewers-dictionary-of-phrase-and-fable)

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