Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. one who stays up all night.

1901

Argosy Mag. 73 351: Thence, at the noise of the policeman, the all-nighter, or the grimy labourer stepping eastward, moving on into Oxford Street, or round by Shaftesbury Avenue to Piccadilly.

2. (US) an establishment, e.g. a restaurant, that stays open all night.

1902		G.B. McCutcheon Catle Craneycrow 5: ’This is a fairly good eating-house,’ observed the would-be victim as they came to an ‘all-nighter.’ They entered and deliberately removed their coats.
1922		N.A.R.D. Jrnl 34 636: The Mofiet and Morgan drug store at Ninth street and Grand avenue is now an all night store, making the third ‘all-nighter’ for Los Angeles.
1939		J. Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath (1951) 331: Ever’ place you look is restaurants. [...] Lookit that all-nighter there.
1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 58: Nobody [there] except the counterman in the all-nighter.

3. anything that lasts all night, e.g. sex, entertainment, rave etc.

1905		Century Mag. 70 277: And pretty soon, like as not, along comes old Landon's rain, dripping, dripping, dripping — an all-nighter.
1907		G.M. Gallaher Vassar Stories 45: ‘We’ve got to take an all-nighter,’ answered the other, the editor-in-chief. The sub drooped visibly as she gazed on her chief. The latter did not bear the appearance desirable in the companion of one's midnight toils.
1923		Parlty Debates (Aus.) 105 2725: Can we, as legislators, properly carry out our duties, sitting from 11 a.m. ’till 11.30 p.m. every day, with an all-nighter occasionally thrown in.
1926		S.H. Adams Revelry 294: ‘I haven’t had an evening like this since God knows when,’ he sighed with deep content [...] ‘Let's make it an all-nighter’.
1965		G. Melly Owning Up (1974) 99: Anyway we didn’t really run the all-nighters to make money.
1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases 13: all-nighter (Sl.) 1. Night-long sex session.
1971		New Scientist and Science Journal 18 Feb. 382: Callaghan is trying to circumvent these enforced allnighters.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 20: all-night movies someone who spends all night making love. Syn: all-nighter.
1973		(con. mid-1960s) J. Patrick Glasgow Gang Observed 60: Fergie was accustomed to throw ‘all nighters’ [i.e. parties] on Friday and Saturday.
1996		J. Cameron It Was An Accident 142: I favoured a good all-nighter some rave up the club, dance all night.
2001		Guardian G2 4 Apr. 23: Earned it? How? By enduring a few years of all-nighters [...]?
2007		C. Goffard Snitch Jacket 227: Goins walks into the interview room with bags under his eyes [...] ‘All-nighter.’.
2013		N. Knight ‘Not Even a Mouse’ in ThugLit Nov.-Dec. [ebook] ‘I know's a projector at this revival house—plays an all-nighter every year’.
2020		G. Armstrong Young Team 65: He doesnae stay oot late n dae aw nighters wae the troops.

4. (also all-night man) a prostitute’s client who pays for a whole night’s sex.

1952		C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 220: type of relation: Natural? French? Permit French? Accept an all-night man?
1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
1975		Africa Woman 9/1: ‘You gotta be a do right, all night man!’ sang Aretha.
1986–7		Maledicta IX 148: The compilers ought to have looked farther afield and found: allnighter.

5. (also all-night stand) a whole night spent with a prostitute, as paid for by a client.

1953		F. Brown Madball (2019) 177: [F]ive bucks was par and twenty was just about the top she could ever get from [a client] and that only for an all night stand.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 236: Three hundred and fifty scoots for an all-nighter.
1987		R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 169: If it’s a quick trick, I wait to drive you back. If it’s an all-nighter [i.e. paid sexual encounter], I cop a sneak, you get home [...] any way you can.
2014		T. Black Artefacts of the Dead [ebook] He didn’t see anyone paying for an all-nighter with a skank like Leanne.

6. (orig. US campus) working all night before an examination.

1964		in Current Sl. (1967) I:4 3/1: All-nighter, n. A study session lasting all night.
1979		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 1: all-nighter – studying all night.
1982		Eble Campus Sl. Spring 1: all-nighter – a period of study which lasts all night.
1993		B. Moore Lex. of Cadet Lang. 10: all nighter 1. the practice of staying up all night to complete an academic assignment due the following morning or to prepare for an examination impending the following day. 2. a cadet who stays up all night to complete an academic assignment due the following morning or to prepare for an examination impending the following day.
1997–2000		Da Bomb 🌐 1: all-nighter: To stay up throughout the night without sleep. I had to pull an all-nighter to finish this project.
2012		C. Eble (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. 2011.