adv., prop. phr., arch. [OE. on niht, reduced by common change of proclitic on to a: already in Chaucer MSS. it interchanges with the modern at night.] By night, at night.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., John vii. 50. Nichodemus … se þe com to him on nyht.
a. 1300. Floriz & Bl., 24. Murie hi uerden þer aniȝt.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. of Fame, 42. To make folke to dreme a-nyght [v.r. on nyght]. Ibid. (c. 1386), Man of L. T., 612. They moste take in pacience a-night [v.r. at nyght, at nyȝt, a nyht] Such maner necessaries.
c. 1440. Partonope, 3113. They mete neuer but a nyght.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. iv. 49. I … bid him take that for comming a night to Iane Smile.
1830. Tennyson, Arab. Nights, ii. Anight my shallop … clove The citron-shadows in the blue.
