wee

/wiː/ (bre, ipa) · [wˈi] /wiː/ (ame, ipa) · [wˈi] /ˈwē How to pronounce wee (audio)/ (ame, mw)

wee — adjective

  • weepositive
  • weeercomparative
  • weeestsuperlative

1. having only a little size or quantity; used informally for something small in a

1.形容詞B1
釋義

having only a little size or quantity; used informally for something small in a friendly way.

例句

The puppy slipped through a wee gap under the garden gate.

a wee + noun for small size

Please leave a wee bit of cake for your sister.

wee bit for a small amount

同義詞
  • small

    the neutral everyday word, without the warm informal tone of wee

  • little

    very close in meaning, but little is common across all varieties of English

  • tiny

    stronger and more emphatic; suggests something extremely small

反義詞
  • large

    bigger in size

  • big

    larger than expected or larger than something else

文法句型

a wee + noun

be wee

用法筆記

Common in Scottish and other British informal speech. It can describe size, amount, or sometimes a short stretch of time, and it often sounds friendly or affectionate.

2. used in the phrase 'the wee hours' for the first hours after midnight, when most

2.形容詞B2
釋義

used in the phrase 'the wee hours' for the first hours after midnight, when most people are asleep.

例句

We did not reach the hostel until the wee hours of Sunday.

the wee hours of + day

Nurses were still admitting patients in the wee hours of the morning.

in the wee hours of the morning

同義詞
  • early

    broader and less precise; it can refer to any time near the start of the day

  • pre-dawn

    more formal and focuses on the time just before sunrise

反義詞
  • late-night

    describes the late part of the evening rather than the first hours after midnight

文法句型

the wee hours

in the wee hours of + day

用法筆記

Almost always appears in the fixed phrase 'the wee hours' or 'the wee small hours'. It means shortly after midnight, not just any early time in the morning.

wee — verb

wee — noun