🗓️ Idiom: Burning the Midnight Oil (v)
💬 Meaning
- To work late into the night, especially to finish something important.
- Putting in extra hours to meet a deadline or complete a task.
🧠 Example Sentences
- We’ve been burning the midnight oil to finalize the client proposal before Friday.
- She burned the midnight oil all week to get the project back on track.
- The team had to burn the midnight oil after the system crash delayed the rollout.
🏛️ Origin
This phrase comes from the days before electricity, when people used oil lamps to work at night. In business, it refers to working long hours (usually after normal working time) to get things done.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
They were __________ to meet the deadline for the project handover.
Answer
burning the midnight oil
2. Choose the correct meaning of “burning the midnight oil”:
A) Starting work very early
B) Working late into the night
C) Taking a break from work
D) Delegating tasks to others
Answer
B) Working late into the night
3. Rewrite the sentence using the idiom:
“We stayed up very late finishing the final report.” → Change the sentence using: burn the midnight oil
Answer
We burned the midnight oil finishing the final report.