dead of night
Also found in: Acronyms, Wikipedia.
Like this video? Subscribe to our free daily email and get a new idiom video every day!
dead of night
The middle of the night. Why are you calling me in the dead of night? Can't this wait till morning?
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
dead of
The period of greatest intensity of something, such as darkness or cold. For example, I love looking at seed catalogs in the dead of winter, when it's below zero outside. The earliest recorded use of dead of night, for "darkest time of night," was in Edward Hall's Chronicle of 1548: "In the dead of the night ... he broke up his camp and fled." Dead of winter, for the coldest part of winter, dates from the early 1600s.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
the dead of night
the quietest, darkest part of the night.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
(in) the ˌdead of (the) ˈnight
,at ˌdead of ˈnight
in the quietest, darkest hours of the night: She crept in at dead of night, while they were asleep. OPPOSITE: in broad daylightFarlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
dead of night/winter, the
The time of most intense stillness, darkness, or cold. This usage dates from the sixteenth century. Shakespeare had it in Twelfth Night (1.5), “Even in the dead of night,” and Washington Irving used the alternate phrase in Salmagundi (1807–08), “In the dead of winter, when nature is without charm.”
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer