# wee

Pronunciation: say "WEE" /wiː/

## Adjective

1. Small in size, amount, or extent; little. *(dialectal, Ireland, New Zealand, Northern England, Scotland)*
   - Simple: Very small in size or amount.
   - _He poured a wee dram of whisky for each guest._
   - _She gave the dog a wee pat before heading out the door._

## Noun

2. Urine, or an act of urinating, in mild informal or child-directed speech ('I need a wee'). *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: An informal word for urine, or for going to the toilet to pass it: 'I need a wee.'
   - _The nurse asked for a sample of wee to send to the lab._
   - _The toilet cubicle smelled strongly of wee._
4. A short stretch of time, or a small distance from one point to another. *(dialectal)*
   - Simple: A short amount of time, or a short distance.
   - _Rest here a wee before we tackle the rest of the climb._
   - _Bide a wee and I'll put the kettle on._

## Verb

3. To urinate; a mild, polite term common in casual British speech. *(colloquial, UK)*
   - Simple: To pass urine, in a gentle everyday way.
   - _She asked the driver to stop so the children could wee._
   - _I really need to wee before the film starts._

## Pronoun

5. Emphatic form of we: an obsolete spelling that marked the pronoun as stressed in the sentence. *(obsolete)* — obsolete emphatic of we
   - Simple: Emphatic form of we: an old spelling of we when it was said with extra force.

## Origin

**Meanings 1, 4** — The word developed from Middle English wey ("little bit"), which came from Old English wǣġ or wǣġe ("weight"). These trace back to Proto-West Germanic *wāgu and then Proto-Germanic *wēgō ("scales, weight"), and they are related to Old English weġan ("to move, weigh").
**Meanings 2–3** — Imitative in origin, the verb copies the noise a person makes while urinating. Its noun use came afterward, formed from the verb.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/wee (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).