the small hours

the small hours (of the night/morning)

The very early hours after midnight. I was studying for the exam until the small hours of the morning, and now I can barely keep my eyes open! We all danced until the small hours of the night. I love the small hours, when few are awake and one can be alone with one's thoughts.
See also: hour, night, small
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

the small hours (of the night)

 and the wee hours (of the night)
the hours immediately after midnight. The dance went on into the small hours of the night. Jim goes to bed in the wee hours and gets up at lunchtime.
See also: hour, small
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

the small hours

or

the wee hours

COMMON The small hours or the wee hours is the time from one o'clock in the morning until about five or six o'clock in the morning. They were arrested in the small hours of Saturday morning. That first night back, Jennifer and I sat up in bed talking into the wee hours.
See also: hour, small
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

the (wee) small hours

the early hours of the morning immediately after midnight.
See also: hour, small
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

the ˈsmall/ˈearly hours

(also the wee (small) ˈhours) the period of time very early in the morning, soon after midnight: He died in the early hours of Saturday morning. We stayed up talking into the small hours.
See also: early, hour, small
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • small hours
  • the small hours (of the night/morning)
  • the wee hours (of the night/morning)
  • wee hours
  • the wee small hours (of the night/morning)
  • the small/early hours
  • the early hours (of the night/morning)
  • oil it
  • on end
  • get off light
References in classic literature
London, which had gone to bed on Sunday night oblivious and inert, was awakened, in the small hours of Monday morning, to a vivid sense of danger.
And he wouldn't turn us out in the small hours. Not he.
The chief pleasure of these philosophers lay in going every Saturday night, when work was done, to Chaseborough, a decayed market-town two or three miles distant; and, returning in the small hours of the next morning, to spend Sunday in sleeping off the dyspeptic effects of the curious compounds sold to them as beer by the monopolizers of the once independent inns.
The night before I sailed, Santos and the captain were aboard with me till the small hours. They promised me that every soul should have every chance; that nothing but unforeseen accident could prevent the boats from making Ascension again in a matter of hours; that as long as the gig was supposed to be lost with all hands, nothing else mattered.
Or in the small hours I might make a confidant of my father, and when I had finished reading he would say thoughtfully, 'That lassie is very natural.
You accuse us of breaking into Captain von Heumann's state-room during the small hours of this morning, and abstracting from it this confounded pearl.
Up to the small hours of the morning I could hear the clinking of his test-tubes which told me that he was still engaged in his malodorous experiment.
CHARSADDA -- A man was buried alive and his wife suffered serious injuries when roof of their house collapsed in Sardheri area here after earthquake hit the region in the small hours of Thursday.
A number of buses will remain in service in Bulgaria's capital Sofia both late on New Year's eve and in the small hours of January 1 to help people celebrating the New Year move around the city.
AMMAN, April 19 (KUNA) -- At least 15 gunmen from the Lebanese Hezbollah group were killed in clashes with the Syrian opposition Jaish Al-Islam and Alwyat Al-Furqan groups in the small hours of Sunday.
"Is there anything more spiritually uplifting than queuing from the small hours of December 26 for the unsurpassable thrill of beating a fellow shopper into a bloody pulp as you wrest a half-price Xbox from their grasp?" Rowan Pelling, former co-editor of The Erotic Review, on sales.
He went walk-about in the small hours, venturing through a luggage-conveyor belt and out to a row of empty planes.
But despite the do going on into the small hours, Hansen (above) never made it - leaving some cynics to speculate that he was unhappy that the BBC pundits had lost to their ITV rivals in a golf match earlier that day!
Babel Police Chief, Major General Riad Kikhany told reporters on the ground, "The security forces carried out a small security operation in the small hours of Monday night, in the area of Snadeg (35 km North of Babylon) in coordination with Baghdad.
On high alert since, the personnel saw three- four miscreants trying to insert a PVC pipe through the border fence -- a common smuggling tactic -- in the small hours of Wednesday.