graveyard shift

noun

: a work shift beginning late at night (such as 11 o'clock)

also : the workers on such a shift

Examples of graveyard shift in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

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The titular security professional, as this loquacious young man thinks of himself, guards a Manhattan residential building on the graveyard shift when trouble, in the shape of two police officers, comes walking into his lobby. —

Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 4 Feb. 2025 The anchor, however, is weighing exiting the network rather than taking the graveyard shift, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday. —

Gordon G. Chang, Newsweek, 24 Jan. 2025 One of her parents works long days; the other works the graveyard shift. —

Lynne Peeples, TIME, 6 Jan. 2025 Essay Elmore Leonard’s Economical Ass-Kicking Linwood Barclay Author Linwood Barclay on the late Elmore Leonard, his famous rules for writing, and how his novels kept him alert while working the graveyard shift. —

Max Ufberg, hazlitt.net, 4 Jan. 2025 See all Example Sentences for graveyard shift

Word History

First Known Use

1908, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of graveyard shift was in 1908

See more words from the same year

Cite this Entry

Style

“Graveyard shift.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/graveyard%20shift. Accessed 8 Feb. 2025.

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