wee

comparative weer · superlative weest

1. IrelandNew ZealandNorthern EnglandScotlandOttawa ValleySmall, little.

   You looked a little cold, so I lit a wee fire.

   4 more examples

   The beat of its wee heart held against her own, sent her intense maternity surging like the spring sap in a young tree.

   1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 275

   Was anyone hurted? Sure, they were just trailin' theirselves off the ground. Ye wud have died larfin'. There's Jimmy Hanlon was never his own man since, and I had me nose broke on me—I find it yet—and some says there was a wee girl from Tanderagee got herself killed.

   1915, Charles L Graves, Humours of Irish life, pages 241-242

   I had not seen a wee boy do it like that before. He was weer than me and his swimming was just like splashing about.

   2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 73

   "I suppose my first objective was to try and help a department, which was very much civil servants who are rotating around on a regular basis, to try and understand public transport a wee bit better and try and understand what was required to run a bus and rail network," muses Conway.

   2026 March 18, Chris Conway talks to Andy Comfort, “The RAIL Interview”, in RAIL, page 32

1. A short time or short distance.

plural wees

1. colloquialuncountableUrine.

   Synonyms: wee-wee, urine

2. colloquialcountableAn act of urination.

   I need to have a wee.

   1 more example

   Um, by the way, make sure everyone knows if the papal envoy says "We desire to wash our hands", that means he wants to go and have a pee (laugh track)... Yes, a Royal wee (laugh track) — followed by a Royal flush (laugh track).

   1987 December 17, Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn, “A Diplomatic Incident”, in Yes, Prime Minister, season 2, episode 3, spoken by Bernard Woolley (Derek Fowlds)

present singular third person wees · participle present weeing · participle past weed · past weed

1. UKcolloquialTo urinate.

   I need to wee! I can't hold it any longer!

   1 more example

   When I was young, I was up every night until the wee hours. Now I'm up every hour at night to wee.

   2011 March 15, Tom Armstrong, Marvin (comic)

   Synonyms: wee-wee

1. emphaticobsoletepersonalpronounobsolete emphatic of we

   Yet lest wee should be Capernaitans, as wee are told there that the flesh profiteth nothing, so wee are told heer, if we be not as deaf as adders, that this union of the flesh proceeds from the union of a fit help and solace.

   1645, John Milton, Tetrachordon

1. alternativeAlternative form of whee.
2. The squeal of a pig.

   Pigling Bland became frightened and cried "Wee, wee, wee! I can't find my way home!"

   1913, Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Pigling Bland

plural Wees

1. countableuncountableA surname.

1. abbreviationuncountableAbbreviation of Western equine encephalomyelitis.