wee small hours

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Scots wee sma' hours (first attested in 1819).

Noun

1. (informal) The very early morning, just after midnight, when most people are asleep.

   He worked into the wee small hours to get everything perfect for the opening day.

Usage notes

Within the context of a sentence, almost always used with the definite article "the", especially, or a demonstrative adjective.

Synonyms

• (very early morning): oh dark thirty, small hours, wee hours

Translations

very early morning

• Dutch: de vroege uurtjes
• French: petites heures du matin f pl, petites heures de la matinée f pl, petit matin (fr) m
• Galician: pola mañanciña
• German: früher Morgen m, Morgengrauen (de) n
• Italian: ore piccole f pl, mattinata (it) f
• Polish: o pogańskiej godzinie
• Russian: предрассве́тные часы́ m pl (predrassvétnyje časý)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Scots: wee sma' hours
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ситни сати

  Roman: sitni sati (sh)

• Spanish: madrugada (es) f, altas horas f pl
• Swedish: småtimmar (sv) pl