overnight

Meanings

1. During or throughout the night, especially during the evening or night just past.
2. In a very short (but unspecified) amount of time.

1. Occurring between dusk and dawn.
2. Complete before the next morning.
3. For which participants stay overnight.

1. To stay overnight; to spend the night.
2. To send something for delivery the next day.

1. An item delivered or completed overnight.
2. An overnight stay, especially in a hotel or other lodging facility.
3. Viewership ratings for a television show that are published the morning after it is broadcast, and may be revised later on.
4. The fore part of the previous night; yesterday evening.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English overnyght, from Old English ofer niht (“through the night, overnight”), equivalent to over + night. Verbal use (late 19th c.) may have been influenced by German übernachten (16th c.), though it could also have developed independently. Compare also Dutch overnachten (“to overnight”), Middle Low German ȫvernachten (“to overnight”), West Frisian oernachtsje (“to overnight”), Saterland Frisian uurnoachtje (“to overnight”).