Stay up means not to go to bed until late at night. It describes a choice: the person could go to bed but stays up working, watching a film or waiting for someone. A time is usually mentioned: “stay up late”, “stay up until midnight”, “stay up all night”.
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stay up late; stay up until + time; stay up all night; stay up + -ing
- We stayed up until three in the morning talking about our travel plans.
- Before the exam I stayed up all night revising, and I could hardly think the next day.
- My flatmate stays up late playing video games, so I sleep with earplugs.
What changed
First versionOn Saturday we stayed up lately watching old films.
RevisionOn Saturday we stayed up late watching old films.
It is tempting to add -ly to “late”, following the pattern of “quick” and “quickly”. But “late” already means “at a late time”, and “lately” is a different word meaning “recently”: I've been tired lately. So it is “stay up late”, and that is the only word that changed in the sentence.
“Stay awake” means not to fall asleep, to fight sleep, even when you are not at home: I drank two coffees to stay awake during the lecture. “Stay up” is about evenings and nights when you do not go to bed, even though you could.
Your turn
I have an early flight tomorrow, so I'm not going to ___ late tonight.
Show the answer
stay up — With an early flight in the morning, it's better not to stay up late in the evening. “Tonight” points to the evening, so you need “stay up”. “Get up late” means to get out of bed late in the morning, and it does not go with “tonight”.
Think of a night when you went to bed very late. Write what time you stayed up until and what you were doing.
Last Friday I stayed up until 1 a.m. watching a football match with friends from work.
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