"graveyard shift" meaning in English

See graveyard shift in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: graveyard shifts [plural]
Etymology: By association of the spooky, cold and silent properties of both the night and graveyards. Head templates: {{en-noun}} graveyard shift (plural graveyard shifts)
  1. A work shift late at night, especially one from midnight to 8 AM on a three-shift schedule. Categories (topical): Night Related terms: graveyard watch
    Sense id: en-graveyard_shift-en-noun-Uy3SraE- Disambiguation of Night: 46 54 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 49 51 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 47 53 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 45 55
  2. A group of workers who work during this time slot. Categories (topical): Night
    Sense id: en-graveyard_shift-en-noun-rv8YtkD7 Disambiguation of Night: 46 54 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 49 51 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 47 53 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 45 55

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "By association of the spooky, cold and silent properties of both the night and graveyards.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "graveyard shifts",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "graveyard shift (plural graveyard shifts)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "day shift"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "49 51",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "47 53",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "45 55",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "46 54",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Night",
          "orig": "en:Night",
          "parents": [
            "Darkness",
            "Time",
            "Light",
            "All topics",
            "Energy",
            "Fundamental",
            "Nature"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Near-synonym: night shift (sometimes synonymous; sometimes coordinate)"
        },
        {
          "text": "I had to work the graveyard shift for most of that year, and at first I hated it, but eventually I even kind of liked it, in some ways.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1994, Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Pulp Fiction, spoken by Jimmie (Quentin Tarantino):",
          "text": "Now she's workin' the graveyard shift at the hospital. She'll be comin' home in less than an hour and a half. Make your phone calls, talk to your people, then get the fuck out of my house.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006, Roberto Refinetti, Circadian physiology, volume 1, page 580:",
          "text": "It is generally believed that when rotating shifts are necessary the rotation should move clockwise (that is, day shift first, then swing shift, then graveyard shift, then back to day shift, and so on)",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A work shift late at night, especially one from midnight to 8 AM on a three-shift schedule."
      ],
      "id": "en-graveyard_shift-en-noun-Uy3SraE-",
      "links": [
        [
          "midnight",
          "midnight"
        ],
        [
          "AM",
          "AM"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "83 17",
          "word": "graveyard watch"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "day shift"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "49 51",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "47 53",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "45 55",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "46 54",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Night",
          "orig": "en:Night",
          "parents": [
            "Darkness",
            "Time",
            "Light",
            "All topics",
            "Energy",
            "Fundamental",
            "Nature"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Near-synonym: night shift (sometimes synonymous; sometimes coordinate)"
        },
        {
          "text": "You'll have to ask the graveyard shift — the equipment was here when we left.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A group of workers who work during this time slot."
      ],
      "id": "en-graveyard_shift-en-noun-rv8YtkD7",
      "links": [
        [
          "worker",
          "worker"
        ],
        [
          "time slot",
          "time slot"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "graveyard shift"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "en:Night"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "By association of the spooky, cold and silent properties of both the night and graveyards.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "graveyard shifts",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "graveyard shift (plural graveyard shifts)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "graveyard watch"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "day shift"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Near-synonym: night shift (sometimes synonymous; sometimes coordinate)"
        },
        {
          "text": "I had to work the graveyard shift for most of that year, and at first I hated it, but eventually I even kind of liked it, in some ways.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1994, Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Pulp Fiction, spoken by Jimmie (Quentin Tarantino):",
          "text": "Now she's workin' the graveyard shift at the hospital. She'll be comin' home in less than an hour and a half. Make your phone calls, talk to your people, then get the fuck out of my house.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006, Roberto Refinetti, Circadian physiology, volume 1, page 580:",
          "text": "It is generally believed that when rotating shifts are necessary the rotation should move clockwise (that is, day shift first, then swing shift, then graveyard shift, then back to day shift, and so on)",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A work shift late at night, especially one from midnight to 8 AM on a three-shift schedule."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "midnight",
          "midnight"
        ],
        [
          "AM",
          "AM"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "day shift"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Near-synonym: night shift (sometimes synonymous; sometimes coordinate)"
        },
        {
          "text": "You'll have to ask the graveyard shift — the equipment was here when we left.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A group of workers who work during this time slot."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "worker",
          "worker"
        ],
        [
          "time slot",
          "time slot"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "graveyard shift"
}

Download raw JSONL data for graveyard shift meaning in English (2.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-21 using wiktextract (7c21d10 and f2e72e5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.