little hours

American  

plural noun

Roman Catholic Church.

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

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little hours British  

plural noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of little hours

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

Three little hours had scarcely fled,— Khara and Dúshaṇ both were dead, And he had freed the saints and made Asylum sure in Daṇḍak's shade.

From The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Griffith, Ralph T. H. (Ralph Thomas Hotchkin)

Keep back the phantoms and the visions sad,   The shades of grey, The fancies that so haunt the little hours   Before the day.

From The Miracle and Other Poems by Sheard, Virna

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

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

They had been so brave in the morning, so strong; but in the evening, a few little hours, they were dead, and we had not hated them, nor they us.

From Campaign Pictures of the War in South Africa (1899-1900) Letters from the Front by Hales, A. G. (Alfred Greenwood)