dead of night

alternative dead of the night

1. idiomaticMiddle of the night.

   Blackbird singing in the dead of night / Take these broken wings and learn to fly

   1968, “Blackbird”, in Paul McCartney (lyrics), The Beatles, performed by The Beatles

   2 more examples

   Write loyal cantons of contemnèd love / And sing them loud even in the dead of night.

   c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]

   I was feeling just as I had felt in the old Malvern House epoch when I used to sneak down to [the schoolmaster]'s study at dead of night in quest of the biscuits he kept there in a tin on his desk, and there came back to me the memory of the occasion when, not letting a twig snap beneath my feet, I had entered his sanctum in pyjamas and a dressing-gown, to find him seated in his chair, tucking into the biscuits himself.

   1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VII

   Synonyms: deep of night, 00:00, 12 o'clock, 12 midnight, 12 a.m., 24:00, midnight, noon