adv. and sb. Forms: see NIGHT. [OE. tó niht, TO prep. A. 7 + NIGHT. Cf. TODAY.] A. adv.
1. On this very night (i.e., the night now present).
a. 1300. Cursor M., 11246 (Cott.). I bring yow word wit ici and blis, Born to night your sauueour es!
1670. Narborough, Jrnl., in Acc. Sev. Late Voy., I. (1711), 83. Much Wind to Night at Northwest.
1797. Nelson, in Nicolas, Disp. (1846), VII. p. cxlv. Half past 3 A.M. I was merely a spectator to-night.
1832. Tennyson, May Queen, II. ii. To-night I saw the sun set. Ibid. (1842), Audley Court, 69. I go to-night: I come to-morrow morn.
b. On any night (as contrasted with the next day). Cf. TODAY A. 1 b.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxiii. 5. And with thy nychtbouris glaidly len and borrow His chance to nycht it may be thyne tomorrow.
1557. North, trans. Gueuara’s Diall Pr., I. xxviii. (1568), 41. For many are layde to night into their graue, which the next day following [are] thought to be aliue.
2. On the night following this day.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Numb. xxii. 19. Ac beoþ her toniht, and abidaþ andsware. Ibid. (c. 1000), Hom., II. 10. Ðu stuna nu toniht [Luke xii. 20 on þisse nihte] ðu scealt ðin lif alætan.
c. 1205. Lay., 709. Anacletus leofe freond to-niht þu scalt faren.
c. 1275. Passion of our Lord, 104, in O. E. Misc., 40. He me schal bitraye to nyht er he slepe.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, XI. 495. I sall cum out … to morn, Or ellys to nycht.
1539. Bible (Great), Ruth iii. 2. Beholde, he wenoweth barleye to nyght in the thresshyng floure.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., IV. i. 201. Last night she slept not, nor to night she shall not. Ibid. (1605), Macb., I. v. 59. Duncan comes here to Night.
1876. Morris, Sigurd (1877), 237. Tonight shall be the weaving, and tomorn the web shall ye win.
† 3. On the night just past; last night. (Perhaps only said in the morning.) Obs. exc. dial.
c. 1205. Lay., 28011. Þa axede hine an uæir cniht, Lauerd hu hauest þu iuaren to-niht?
c. 1290. Beket, 1542, in S. Eng. Leg., I. 150. To-niȝe ase ich was a-slepe a wonder metinge me com.
1390. Gower, Conf., I. 73. No mannes myht Mai do that he hath do to nyht.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. iv. 50. I dreampt a dreame to night.
1610. B. Jonson, Alch., I. ii. Sub. … The Queene of Faerie do’s not rise, Till it be noone. Fac. Not, if she daunc’d to night.
1641. Brome, Joviall Crew, III. Wks. 1873, III. 393. Ease call’st thou it? Didst thou sleep to night?
1798. J. Jefferson, Lett. to J. Boucher, 23 Feb. (MS.) [Hampshire expressions]. To-night for last night, or yesternight.
B. sb. This night, or the night after this day.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 3543 (Cott.). Þou sal neuer forth fra to night In þi forbirth do claim na right.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., II. iii. 142. Sweet Sir Toby be patient for to night.
1709. Prior, Thief & Cordelier, ix. He that’s hang’d before noon, ought to think of to-night.
1799. Wordsw., Lucy Gray, iv. To-night will be a stormy night—You to the town must go.
1895. Sioux City Jrnl., 2 Jan., 1/2. Tonight all the ore wheelers at the blast furnaces of the Edgar Thompson Steel works on both the day and night turns went out on a strike against a reduction in wages.
1908. [Miss E. Fowler], Betw. Trent & Ancholme, 212. To-night is cloudy and dull.
