nightly

nightly, nocturnal, night all mean of, relating to, or associated with the night.

Nightly, opposed to daily, may mean no more than this

{

all is quiet, no alarms; nothing fear of nightly harms— Housman

}

{

the increase in body size may have been an important factor in releasing the early primates from their nightly or twilight feeding habits, by allowing them better to hold their own against aggressors— LaBarre

}

But nightly is the one of these terms that usually carries a strong implication of recurrence and is especially appropriate to convey the idea of happening night after night

{

there is only one novel this writer can recall which delves beneath the surface of the daily and nightly life and death of a great and influential newspaper— Harrison Smith

}

Nocturnal, opposed to diurnal, is often interchangeable with nightly, especially in its more general sense

{

the squares of light along the fif-teenth story testified until midnight of their nocturnal industry— Auchincloss

}

{

the changing beauty of nocturnal landscapes— Bennett

}

but distinctively it may mean active at night

{

shopping, working, theatergoing, and arguing hours in Barcelona never cease to amaze visitors from less nocturnal countries. Some shops stay open until well after midnight, and then are closed until the next noon— Wechsberg

}

{

the eyes of most fish are adapted to the conditions of dim illumination associated with nocturnal feeding— Dowdeswell

}

Night in much of its use is interchangeable with nocturnal and may be preferred to the latter when a less formal term is required

{

night noises

}

{

the night train

}

{

a night ape

}

Distinctively, the term is used to describe persons who work at night

{

a night nurse

}

{

ask the night clerk

}

and things that occur or are intended for use at night

{

night baseball

}

{

a bank with a night depository

}

Antonyms: daily