small hours

American  

plural noun

1. hours after midnight; early morning hours.

   We danced into the small hours.

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small hours British  

plural noun

1. the early hours of the morning, after midnight and before dawn

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small hours Idioms  

1. Also, wee hours. The hours following midnight, as in I stayed up working through the small hours, or The parents didn't come home until the wee hours. The adjectives small and wee both refer to the low numbers of those hours (one o'clock, two o'clock, etc.). [c. 1830]

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Etymology

Origin of small hours

First recorded in 1830–40

Example Sentences

Savage added that this joy in the face of institutional indifference to our suffering, our dancing into the small hours of the night, was indispensable for establishing political force and pushback during the AIDs crisis.

From Salon • Mar. 31, 2025

By the mid-90s, Nightingale was presenting The Chill Out Zone, in which she featured dance music in the small hours.

From BBC • Jan. 12, 2024

Intensive sessions with all sorts of delegates went well into the small hours of Wednesday morning after the conference presidency’s initial document angered many countries by avoiding decisive calls for action on curbing warming.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 12, 2023

Into the small hours of the year, into the dawn of another one.

From New York Times • Dec. 9, 2023

Looking back now, it feels like we spent ages in that steamed-up kitchen after breakfast, or huddled around half-dead fires in the small hours, lost in conversation about our plans for the future.

From "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro