18+ Burn The Midnight Oil Idiom Meaning Images. The word 'elucubrate' was defined in 1623 as doing things by the candlelight. Originally referring to the act of burning oil in lamps for light and safety.

She was burning the midnight oil preparing for her daughter's wedding when she had a heart attack. An idiom is a word, group of words or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is not easily deduced from its literal definition. Wee tyre the night in thought;

These lamps were customarily extinguished.

Related idioms and phrases this phrase first appeared in mid 20th century air force slang, meaning be killed in a crash. If you stay up very late working or studying, you burn the midnight oil. To work late into the night 2. He's been burning the midnight oil getting his article written.