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Small hours   /smɔl ˈaʊərz/   Listen
noun
Hour  n.  
1.
The twenty-fourth part of a day; sixty minutes.
2.
The time of the day, as expressed in hours and minutes, and indicated by a timepiece; as, what is the hour? At what hour shall we meet?
3.
Fixed or appointed time; conjuncture; a particular time or occasion; as, the hour of greatest peril; the man for the hour. "Woman,... mine hour is not yet come." "This is your hour, and the power of darkness."
4.
pl. (R. C. Ch.) Certain prayers to be repeated at stated times of the day, as matins and vespers.
5.
A measure of distance traveled. "Vilvoorden, three hours from Brussels."
After hours, after the time appointed for one's regular labor.
Canonical hours. See under Canonical.
Hour angle (Astron.), the angle between the hour circle passing through a given body, and the meridian of a place.
Hour circle. (Astron.)
(a)
Any circle of the sphere passing through the two poles of the equator; esp., one of the circles drawn on an artificial globe through the poles, and dividing the equator into spaces of 15°, or one hour, each.
(b)
A circle upon an equatorial telescope lying parallel to the plane of the earth's equator, and graduated in hours and subdivisions of hours of right ascension.
(c)
A small brass circle attached to the north pole of an artificial globe, and divided into twenty-four parts or hours. It is used to mark differences of time in working problems on the globe.
Hour hand, the hand or index which shows the hour on a timepiece.
Hour line.
(a)
(Astron.) A line indicating the hour.
(b)
(Dialing) A line on which the shadow falls at a given hour; the intersection of an hour circle which the face of the dial.
Hour plate, the plate of a timepiece on which the hours are marked; the dial.
Sidereal hour, the twenty-fourth part of a sidereal day.
Solar hour, the twenty-fourth part of a solar day.
The small hours, the early hours of the morning, as one o'clock, two o'clock, etc.
To keep good hours, to be regular in going to bed early.


adjective
Small  adj.  (compar. smaller; superl. smallest)  
1.
Having little size, compared with other things of the same kind; little in quantity or degree; diminutive; not large or extended in dimension; not great; not much; inconsiderable; as, a small man; a small river. "To compare Great things with small."
2.
Being of slight consequence; feeble in influence or importance; unimportant; trivial; insignificant; as, a small fault; a small business.
3.
Envincing little worth or ability; not large-minded; sometimes, in reproach, paltry; mean. "A true delineation of the smallest man is capable of interesting the greatest man."
4.
Not prolonged in duration; not extended in time; short; as, after a small space.
5.
Weak; slender; fine; gentle; soft; not loud. "A still, small voice."
Great and small,of all ranks or degrees; used especially of persons. "His quests, great and small."
Small arms, muskets, rifles, pistols, etc., in distinction from cannon.
Small beer. See under Beer.
Small coal.
(a)
Little coals of wood formerly used to light fires.
(b)
Coal about the size of a hazelnut, separated from the coarser parts by screening.
Small craft (Naut.), a vessel, or vessels in general, of a small size.
Small fruits. See under Fruit.
Small hand, a certain size of paper. See under Paper.
Small hours. See under Hour.
Small letter. (Print.), a lower-case letter. See Lower-case, and Capital letter, under Capital, a.
Small piece, a Scotch coin worth about 2¼d. sterling, or about 4½cents.
Small register. See the Note under 1st Register, 7.
Small stuff (Naut.), spun yarn, marline, and the smallest kinds of rope.
Small talk, light or trifling conversation; chitchat.
Small wares (Com.), various small textile articles, as tapes, braid, tringe, and the like.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Small hours" Quotes from Famous Books



... terrible portent for humanity was that shape, a beginning that must surely spread and widen and change and dominate all the affairs of men, but to Filmer it is very doubtful whether it appeared in anything but a narrow and personal light. Several people heard him pacing in the small hours—for the vast place was packed with guests by a proprietor editor who, before all understood compression. And about five o'clock, if not before, Filmer left his room and wandered out of the sleeping house into the park, alive by that time with sunlight and birds and squirrels and the fallow deer. ...
— Twelve Stories and a Dream • H. G. Wells
... latter's complaints of pain and forecasts of what he would do when he got up, the laugh had not been completely against him. He had received the honourable distinction of extra lesson for ragging in French. He had been "touched up" by the prefect of his dormitory for creating a disturbance in the small hours. In fact, he had gone through all the usual preliminaries, ...
— The Politeness of Princes - and Other School Stories • P. G. Wodehouse
... who had been captured at sea and unwarrantably, as they contended, reduced to slavery. The rebels to the number of twenty-three provided themselves with guns, hatchets, knives and swords, and chose the dark of the moon in the small hours of an April night to set a house afire and slaughter the citizens as they flocked thither. But their gunfire caused the governor to send soldiers from the Battery with such speed that only nine whites had been ...
— American Negro Slavery - A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime • Ulrich Bonnell Phillips
... with quotations from these his favorite authors. A pertinacious arguer, so much so that sometimes he watched my awakening in order to continue a discussion on some topic of science, poetry, or practical life, cut short by the chime of the small hours, he never lost his mild and amiable temper. Our faithful companion was Count Alexander Keyserling, a native of Courland, who has since achieved distinction as ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)
... not much liked. He had been at the head of the police so long that he could not shake off the habits he had acquired in that position: He had been accustomed to give audiences upon all sorts of police matters at dead of night, or at the small hours of the morning, and he appeared to see no reason why he should not do the same now that he was Keeper of the Seals. He irritated people beyond all bearing, by making appointments with them at these unreasonable ...
— The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, Complete • Duc de Saint-Simon


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