"well past closing time?"
It was the middle of summer and well past closing time in the downtown Berkeley bar where my friend Polly and I worked together as bartenders

- in this sentence, "well past closing time" means closing time is passed nicely??

Question

"well past closing time?"
It was the middle of summer and well past closing time in the downtown Berkeley bar where my friend Polly and I worked together as bartenders

-> in this sentence, "well past closing time" means closing time is passed nicely??

Answer

Here "well" means "very much".

For example, if 12 midnight is closing time, then 12:45 am would be well past closing time, but 12:05 would not be.

Answer

The saying, "... well past closing time ..." means that the bar's closing time was a while ago. "Well" can also be used in other ways, like "They are well over an hour late." Here it is being used the same way, "well" indicating a lot or much time has passed.

Example: The bar closes at 2 AM. You and Polly are still at the bar at 3 AM. You closed the bar an hour ago, but you are still there. So, a lot of time has passed (well passed) since you were supposed to close.

I hope this makes sense.

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