darkness between sunset and sunrise

n.

2. The period between dusk and midnight of a given day: either late Thursday night or early Friday morning.

5. Nightfall: worked from morning to night.

6. Darkness: vanished into the night.

adj.

1. Of or relating to the night: the night air.

2. Intended for use at night: a night light.

3. Working during the night: the night nurse.

4. Active chiefly at night: night prowlers.

5. Occurring after dark: night baseball.

n

1. the period of darkness each 24 hours between sunset and sunrise, as distinct from day

2. (modifier) of, occurring, working, etc, at night: a night nurse.

3. the occurrence of this period considered as a unit: four nights later they left.

4. the period between sunset and retiring to bed; evening

5. the time between bedtime and morning: she spent the night alone.

6. (Physical Geography) the weather conditions of the night: a clear night.

7. the activity or experience of a person during a night

8. (sometimes capital) any evening designated for a special observance or function

9. nightfall or dusk

10. a state or period of gloom, ignorance, etc

11. make a night of it to go out and celebrate for most of the night

12. night and day continually: that baby cries night and day.

See Also: DARKNESS

1. The black night spread like glistening caviar —Diane Wakoski
2. The dark-blue velvet night hung like a curtain —Elizabeth Bowen
3. The darkness of night, like pain, is dumb; the darkness of dawn, like peace, is silent —Rabindranath Tagore
4. Dusk was falling like blue flakes —Truman Capote
5. The evenings and nights were like shutters opening and closing, no more than that —Dan Jacobson
6. Midnight shakes the memory as a madman shakes a dead geranium —T. S. Eliot
7. Night, bereft of dreams, is like a deserted railway station after hours —Robert Duncan
8. Night brings out stars as sorrow shows us truth —P. J. Bailey
9. Night comes like a blackout —John Rechy
10. The night dives down like one great crow —Richard Wilbur
11. Night falls like a dropped shutter —Beryl Markham
12. Night falls like fire —Algernon Charles Swinburne
13. The night feels like a gigantic Ferris wheel turning in blackness, very slowly —Margaret Laurence
14. Night had fallen like a black curtain —Colin Forbes
15. The night is as soft as milk —Albert Camus
16. The night is like flower petals, the air moist as a damp cloth —W. P. Kinsella
17. The night is soft and silent, warm as cashmere —W. P. Kinsella
18. The night roars on … like an express train —Erich Maria Remarque
19. The night descended on her like a benediction —Joseph Conrad
20. The nights stick together like pages in an old book —John Ashberry
21. The night stretches before me like an endless checklist —Natascha Wodin
22. The night trickles on like liquid time —Natascha Wodin
23. The still night drifted deep like snow about me —Edna St. Vincent Millay
24. The summer night is like a perfection of thought —Wallace Stevens
25. The night, like ice, seemed to harden around her —William Dieter

1. 'night' and 'at night'

Night is the period during each twenty-four hours when it is dark. If something happens regularly during this period, you say that it happens at night.

The doors were kept closed at night.

I used to lie awake at night, listening to the rain.

A night is one of these periods of darkness. You usually refer to a particular period as the night.

He went to a hotel and spent the night there.

I got a phone call in the middle of the night.

2. the previous night

If something happened during the night before the present day, you say that it happened in the night, during the night, or last night.

I didn't hear Sheila in the night.

I had the strangest dream last night.

You can also say that a situation existed last night.

I didn't manage to sleep much last night.

Last night is also used for saying that something happened during the previous evening.

I met your husband last night.

If you are talking about a day in the past and you want to say that something happened the night before that day, you say that it happened in the night, during the night, or the previous night.

His father had died in the night.

This was the hotel where they had stayed the previous night.

3. exact times

If you want to make it clear that you are talking about a particular time in the early part of the night rather than the morning, you add at night.

This took place at eleven o'clock at night on our second day.

However, if you are talking about a time after midnight and you want to make it clear that you are talking about the night and not the afternoon, you say in the morning.

It was five o'clock in the morning.