midnight | meaning of midnight in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English | LDOCE

From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary EnglishChronologymidnightmid‧night /ˈmɪdnaɪt/ ●●● S3 noun [uncountable]    TMC12 o’clock at nightat midnight  The train is due in at midnight.after/before midnight  We stayed there until way after midnight.  You can’t phone her now – it’s gone midnight (=after midnight)!  By the time he arrived, it was well past midnight (=after midnight).at/on the stroke of midnight (=at exactly midnight)  The treaty will come into force on the stroke of midnight tonight.  He’s gone for a midnight swim. ► Don’t say ‘in the midnight’. If you mean ‘at 12 o’clock at night’ say at midnight and if you mean ‘very late at night’ say in the middle of the night. → burn the midnight oilExamples from the Corpusmidnight• About midnight, the first Federal units began withdrawing from the field.• Troops were deployed in Kwangju at midnight on May 17, just as Chun was declaring nationwide martial law.• In other years, he had often felt a great fatigue after the midnight service.• We always go to midnight mass on Christmas Eve.• The restaurant is open from 5 p.m. to midnight every day.• Sometimes these domino sessions in the canteen would last from 6.30 p.m. until midnight.• She forgot it was midnight and this was a respectable couple.at/on the stroke of midnight• I managed to come at the stroke of midnight with my third companion of the night.