earlyBrE /ˈɜːli/ NAmE /ˈɜːrli/► SEE ALLthe early bird catches the wormearly onit’s early days (yet)bright and earlythe small/early hourshave an early/a late night ●the ˌearly bird catches the ˈworm (saying) you have to get up early or do sth before others in order to be successful捷足先登；早到早得▸an ˈearly bird
noun
(humorous) a person who gets up, arrives, etc. very early早起者；早到者；早行动者●early ˈonat an early stage of a situation, relationship, period of time, etc.在早期；早先◆I knew quite early on that I wanted to marry her. 我一开始就有要娶她的想法。●it’s early ˈdays (yet) (BrE) it is too soon to be certain about sth作出结论还为时过早；时机未到◆The new store hasn’t had many customers though of course it’s early days yet. 这家新店顾客不多，不过这只是时日未到而已。●bright and ˈearlyearly in the morning大清早◆You’re up bright and early this morning!你今天起得很早啊！●the ˈsmall/ˈearly hours ( the wee (small) ˈhours) the period of time very early in the morning, soon after midnight深夜，凌晨（指午夜刚过的一段时间）◆He died in the early hours of Saturday morning.他在星期六凌晨去世。◆We stayed up talking into the small hours.我们熬夜聊天，一直聊到午夜过后。●have an early/a late ˈnightgo to bed earlier or later than usual（比平时）睡得早／晚◆I’d better have an early night if I want to get up at 6 o’clock.如果我明天要 6 点钟起床，今晚得早点睡。◆I’ve had a lot of late nights recently.最近我常常睡得很晚。