little hours

American  

plural noun

Roman Catholic Church.

1. the hours of prime, tierce, sext, and nones, and sometimes also vespers and compline.

---

little hours British  

plural noun

1. RC Church the canonical hours of prime, terce, sext, and nones in the divine office

---

Etymology

Origin of little hours

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

little hours

Then he had been but two hours late—two poor little hours!

From The Shadow of a Crime A Cumbrian Romance by Caine, Hall, Sir

Just twenty-four little hours, and she would be mine—the only woman I had ever really coveted, the only one who had ever found the good in me.

From The Rustlers of Pecos County by Grey, Zane

Had Judith Rodney been his desert comrade all these cheerful years for him to get his first belated insight into the real Judith only a few little hours back?

From Judith of the Plains by Manning, Marie

But, idol of my heart, though I am overcome with grief at the idea of leaving you for two little hours, it is a question of four thousand francs.

From The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol by Ball, Alec

The night has reached the dreariest of her little hours, that one that seems equally remote from the comfortable shores of the gone day and the coming one.

From Doctor Cupid by Broughton, Rhoda