small hours

noun
1.
hours after midnight; early morning hours:
We danced into the small hours.
Origin
1830-40
Examples from the web for small hours
  • But the labour worked seven days per week, and into the wee small hours.
  • The beer's cheap but the flying stories are priceless and last into the small hours of the night.
  • The large number of guests lingered to the small hours of the night.
  • The rest of the evening was spent in-onus, recitations and dancing, which were kept up until the small hours of the morning.
British Dictionary definitions for small hours

small hours

plural noun
1.
the small hours, the early hours of the morning, after midnight and before dawn
Idioms and Phrases with small hours

small hours

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 ]