Library / English Dictionary

WEE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A short time

Example:

bide a wee

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Hypernyms ("wee" is a kind of...):

time (an indefinite period (usually marked by specific attributes or activities))

Domain region:

Scotland (one of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; located on the northern part of the island of Great Britain; famous for bagpipes and plaids and kilts)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Very early

Example:

the wee hours of the morning

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

early (at or near the beginning of a period of time or course of events or before the usual or expected time)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(used informally) very small

Example:

a wee tot

Synonyms:

bittie; bitty; itsy-bitsy; itty-bitty; teensy; teensy-weensy; teentsy; teeny; teeny-weeny; wee; weensy; weeny

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

little; small (limited or below average in number or quantity or magnitude or extent)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

Derivation:

weeness (the property of being very small in size)

 III. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Eliminate urine

Example:

Again, the cat had made on the expensive rug

Synonyms:

make; make water; micturate; pass water; pee; pee-pee; piddle; piss; puddle; relieve oneself; spend a penny; take a leak; urinate; wee; wee-wee

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "wee" is one way to...):

egest; eliminate; excrete; pass (eliminate from the body)

Verb group:

urinate (pass after the manner of urine)

ca-ca; crap; defecate; make; shit; stool; take a crap; take a shit (have a bowel movement)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "wee"):

wet (make one's bed or clothes wet by urinating)

stale (urinate, of cattle and horses)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Credits

 Context examples: 

I sent them aboot their business pretty quick; but as just after a fog closed in on us I felt a wee bit as they did anent something, though I wouldn't say it was agin the big box.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He found a weed that tasted sour and he ate all he could find of it, which was not much, for it was a creeping growth, easily hidden under the several inches of snow.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

An’ wasn’t there the Governor of Kura Island, an’ the Chief iv Police, Japanese gentlemen, sir, an’ didn’t they come aboard the Ghost as his guests, a-bringin’ their wives along—wee an’ pretty little bits of things like you see ’em painted on fans.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

It is strange that in one twelve hours the Abbey should have cast off its foulest weed and should now lose what we are fain to look upon as our choicest blossom.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Toto was not gray; he was a little black dog, with long silky hair and small black eyes that twinkled merrily on either side of his funny, wee nose.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

It was all rocky: however I got many birds’ eggs; and, striking fire, I kindled some heath and dry sea-weed, by which I roasted my eggs.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The sand, the sea-weed, and the flakes of foam, were driving by; and I was obliged to call for assistance before I could shut the gate again, and make it fast against the wind.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

This strange, wild story seemed to have come to us from amid the mad elements—blown in upon us like a sheet of sea-weed in a gale—and now to have been reabsorbed by them once more.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Winter snows, I thought, had drifted through that void arch, winter rains beaten in at those hollow casements; for, amidst the drenched piles of rubbish, spring had cherished vegetation: grass and weed grew here and there between the stones and fallen rafters.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I took out my small provisions and after having refreshed myself, I secured the remainder in a cave, whereof there were great numbers; I gathered plenty of eggs upon the rocks, and got a quantity of dry sea-weed, and parched grass, which I designed to kindle the next day, and roast my eggs as well as I could, for I had about me my flint, steel, match, and burning-glass.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)