熬夜 (áo yè) — to stay up late or all night (often for work or… | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

A verb meaning 'to stay up late or all night,' usually for work or study. Note that 夜 here is a bound noun (熬夜 / 熬了一夜), not a standalone word like 晚上.

verb

to stay up late or all night (often for work or study)

Examples

。
Wǒ zuó wǎn áo le yí yè xué xí.
I stayed up all night last night studying.
，熬夜。
Wèi le kǎo shì, tā lián xù áo yè le sān tiān.
He stayed up late for three days straight to prepare for the exam.
熬夜。
Cháng qī áo yè duì shēn tǐ hěn bù hǎo.
Long-term staying up late is very bad for health.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

熬áoendure

熬 'endure' takes 夜 'night' as its object, so staying up through the night.

Characters in this word

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

夕夕xīmoon

Sound part声符shēngfú

亦

亦yì夜yè

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The form 夜 pairs 亦 as a sound part with 夕 as a moon part, for night. In the modern shape, the 亦 part is broken up and one stroke merges into 夕.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 5 Daily Routine Time of Day

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