midnight chow

midnight chow

English

Noun

midnight chow (uncountable)

1. (US, military, informal) A meal served in the mess hall around midnight or later.
   • 1917, in United States Marine Corps, The Marines Magazine, C. A. Ketcham (1917), page 27,

     After the ball was over and the taxi-cab was underway some one suggested midnight chow, permitted by the censor.

   • 1957, Walter Sullivan, Quest for a Continent, McGraw-Hill, page 217,

     Chief Petty Officer Paul Saylor, an electronics technician, and one of his men set out from the Operations Hut for their midnight chow. It was broad daylight, even at that hour, but visibility was literally zero.

   • 2007, Michael C. Hodges, A Doctor Looks at War: My Year in Iraq, Tate Publishing, →ISBN, page 188,

     After quick greetings to those who were still awake, some of our group went to eat at the midnight chow, some went to use the phones, some went to shower, and others, like me, just went to sleep.