afterclap

See also: after-clap

English

Alternative forms

• after-clap

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈæftə(ɹ)klæp/, (trap–bath split) /ˈɑːftə(ɹ)klæp/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English afterclap, afterclappe, equivalent to after- +‎ clap. Compare Low German achterklap (“afterclap”).

Noun

afterclap (plural afterclaps)

1. (archaic) An additional adverse event that occurs unexpectedly after an earlier one was thought to be over and done with.
   • 1625, Peter Heylyn, “Of Assyria, Mesopotamia, and Chaldea”, in Mikrokosmos‎^[5], Oxford, p:

     […] immediatly after the Vniuersall deluge, Nimrod […] perswaded the people to secure themselues from the like after-claps, by building some stupendious Edifice, which might resist the fury of a second deluge.

   • 1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras‎^[6], London: Canto 3, page 77:

     What plaguy mischiefs and mishaps
     Do dog him still with after-claps!

   • 1865, William Stott Banks, A List of Provincial Words in Use at Wakefield in Yorkshire‎^[7], London: J.R. Smith, page 3:

     AFTERCLAPS, unpleasant things coming after affairs which were supposed ended.

   • 1915, Jack London, chapter 46, in The Mutiny of the Elsinore‎^[8], New York: Macmillan, page 332:

     Strange to say, the gale, after easing to a mild breeze, recrudesced in a sort of afterclap.

2. (archaic) An unfavourable turn of events following a favourable situation; an eventuality for which one ought to be prepared.

   Synonyms: calamity, disaster, peril, reversal, setback

   • 1587, Raphael Holinshed et al., “Henrie the Second”, in Chronicles‎^[9], volume 3, page 93:

     […] as cookes among all their sawces doo mind nothing lesse than sobernesse: so these in the abundance of their ioies, thought nothing of afterclaps […]

   • 1630, Philip Massinger, The Renegado‎^[10], London: John Waterson, act I, scene 3:

     To spare a little for an after clappe
     Were not improuidence.

   • 1770, Thomas Bridges, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, London: S. Hooper, 3rd ed., Volume I, p. 7,^[11]

     May you all live to see Troy out,
     And when you’ve storm’d the Trojan gaps,
     May you escape all after-claps.

   • 1916, Martha Finley, chapter 19, in Christmas with Grandma Elsie‎^[12], New York: Dodd, Mead, page 317:

     That burglary following so immediately upon the festivities of our delightful Christmas holidays, seemed a most trying and unfortunate afterclap; but we will hope for better things next time.

3. The consequence (often, but not always, adverse) of an action or event.

   Synonyms: outcome, repercussion, reverberation, upshot

   • 1753, uncredited translator, The School of Man, London: Lockyer Davis, 2nd ed., pp. 102-103,^[13]

     […] he loves Pleasure; but then, without any Afterclap; fain would he be gathering Roses, but he’s afraid of the Prickles.

   • 1891, Grover Cleveland, letter to William Freeman Vilas in Allan Nevins (ed.), Letters of Grover Cleveland, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1933, p. 244,^[14]

     My notion is that the Senatorial result in this State is the best that could have been attained. I am not sure about the after-clap, but I think quieter politics in this State will result.

   • 1926, Alice Dunbar Nelson, diary entry, in Gloria T. Hull (ed.), Give Us Each Day: The Diary of Alice Dunbar-Nelson, New York: Norton, 1984, p. 196,^[15]

     Seems like no matter where I go, if I have a pleasant time, there is always a nasty afterclap of bad checks following me.

   • 2008, Timothy J. Colton, chapter 12, in Yeltsin: A Life‎^[16], New York: Basic Books, page 306:

     As an afterclap of Black Tuesday, the Duma initiated but did not approve a vote of no-confidence in the government.

4. A phenomenon occurring after a similar earlier one; a later manifestation of something.

   Synonym: echo

   • 1884, Oliver Wendell Holmes, chapter 11, in Ralph Waldo Emerson‎^[17], Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, page 268:

     Emerson spoke of the Mormons. Some one had said, “They impress the common people, through their imagination, by Bible-names and imagery.” “Yes,” he said, “it is an after-clap of Puritanism. […] ”

   • 1891, Elizabeth Gilbert Martin (translator), Marie Antoinette and the Downfall of Royalty by Arthur-Léon Imbert de Saint-Amand, New York: Scribner, 1891, Chapter 4, p. 32,^[18]

     The drama of the Revolution is not French alone; it is European. It has its afterclap in every empire, in every kingdom, even to the most distant lands.

5. A sound that follows another, especially a loud noise, such as thunder.

   Synonym: echo

   • 1687, Cyrano de Bergerac, translated by Archibald Lovell, The Comical History of the States and Empires of the Worlds of the Moon and Sun‎^[19], London: Henry Rhodes, page 166:

     […] these Thunder-claps so dreadful before, that proceeded from the shock he gave its Enemy, were no more now but the dull Sound of those little After-claps, which denote the end of a Storm;

   • 1862, Johannes Scotus, chapter 17, in The Weird of the Wentworths‎^[20], volume 1, London: Saunders, Otley, page 178:

     […] the storm wore gradually away, now and then only a faint after-clap grumbled in the distance […]

   • 1918, Daniel Gregory Mason, chapter 4, in Short Studies of Great Masterpieces‎^[21], New York: The H.W. Gray Co., pages 36–38:

     The first movement opens with a statement, in a bold orchestral unison, of the main theme […] , the phraseology of which, in four measures, with an after clap or “echo” of the fourth, is characteristic and should be noted.

   • 1988, Don DeLillo, Libra‎^[22], New York: Viking, Part 1, p. 72:

     […] during the twenty months they would spend in the fortress of La Cabaña listening to rifle reports from the moat, where the executions took place, each crisp volley followed by a precise echo, an afterclap […]

   • 2003, Peter Goldsworthy, Three Dog Night‎^[23], Camberwell, Victoria: Viking, Part 5, p. 333:

     Music brought up our rear: the chanting of the old doctor, the clap and echoing after-clap of his rhythm sticks as he shuffled out of his sorry camp.

6. A symptom of an illness, especially one that appears after the initial onset; an illness or symptom caused by exposure to a substance, an injury, etc.

   Synonyms: sequela, side-effect, symptom

   • 1594, John Hester, chapter 10, in The Pearle of Practise‎^[24], London, page 59:

     For such as haue this Gonorrhaea, neuer suspecting or fearing the afterclaps, suffer their disease, to grow on further and further till their cure will very hardly or neuer be accomplished.

   • 1678, Thomas Collard, Animadversions upon a Fatal Period‎^[25], London: Thomas Basset, page 42:

     […] we are not so stupid and zealously Lunatick, as not to fear the frequent Afterclaps (Feavers, Dropsies, Surfeits,) of high and constant debaucheries […]

   • 1863, Andrew Wynter, Subtle Brains and Lissom Fingers‎^[26], London: Robert Hardwicke, pages 417–418:

     Whilst afterclaps of this kind may always be looked for when any serious injury to the head has arisen from blows or other causes, it does not always follow that the presence of abscess, even in the substance of the brain, is accompanied by any serious symptoms.

   • 1871, Orson Squire Fowler, chapter 6, in Life‎^[27], Boston, page 293:

     MANDRAKE root, made into pills, or steeped, and the decoction drank, touches the liver as effectually as calomel, yet leaves no poisonous after-claps.

   • 1905, Evelyn Raymond, chapter 20, in The Brass Bound Box‎^[28], Boston: Dana Estes, pages 301–302:

     […] all uncomfortable in freshly donned winter flannels—since this was to be a sort of out-doors party and there must be no afterclaps of croup;

   • 2014, Robert Olen Butler, chapter 39, in The Empire of Night‎^[29], New York: The Mysterious Press, page 249:

     If he was not still actively drunk, his head was surely pounding with the afterclap of rye.

7. (uncountable, medicine, obsolete) Urethral discharge as a symptom of gonorrhea.

   Synonym: gleet

   • 1830, John Abernethy, chapter 22, in Surgical and Physiological Works‎^[30], London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, page 276:

     […] I have known instances where the gonorrhœa has ceased without leaving any after-clap, or gleet,

   • 1877, William Morgan, Contagious Diseases, London: The Homœopathic Publishing Company, Part 1, p. 35,^[31]

     […] the fourth stage of the complaint, known as a “gleet,” or afterclap.

8. (obsolete) A change or attempted change to an agreement after it has been entered into; an additional charge (especially one over and above the previously agreed-upon price).
   • 1755, Peter Drake, The Memoirs of Capt. Peter Drake‎^[32], Dublin, page 162:

     […] he produced my Accompt in his Book, and very generously crossed it out, but I desired a Receipt to prevent any After-claps, which he readily granted, and then I very lovingly took my Leave of him.

   • 1780, William Cowper, letter to William Unwin in William Hayley (ed.), The Life and Letters of William Cowper, London: J. Johnson, 1812, p. 293,^[33]

     I shall charge you a halfpenny apiece for every copy I send you, the short as well as the long. This is a sort of afterclap you little expected, but I cannot possibly afford them at a cheaper rate.

   • 1835, Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, “The Horse Swap” in Georgia Scenes, Characters, Incidents, &c., Augusta, GA: S. R. Sentinel, p. 28,^[34]

     “Now,” said Blossom, as he handed Peter the three dollars, “I’m a man, that when he makes a bad trade, makes the most of it until he can make a better. I’m for no rues and after-claps.”

     “That’s just my way,” said Peter; “I never goes to law to mend my bargains.”

   • 1914, Charles E. White Jr., What You Should Know When Building a Little House‎^[35], Philadelphia: The Ladies’ Home Journal, page 33:

     An allowance included in the specifications protects the owner from “extras” (because it is involved in the original contract instead of coming in afterwards as an “afterclap”).

9. (humorous) A child born after the one that was intended to be the last.
   • 1845, Anna Maria Hall, “The Governess”, in The Private Purse‎^[36], New York: C.S. Francis, page 97:

     […] there are only two girls. No after claps, like my sister Gresham’s little ‘Teddy;’ […]

   • 1906, Molly Elliot Seawell, chapter 1, in The Victory‎^[37], New York: Appleton, page 10:

     He was his parents’ Benjamin, the afterclap which had come to them almost in their old age, and was in some sort different to them from their older sons.

   • 1909, John Huntley Skrine, “Beside Women and Children”, in Pastor Ovium‎^[38], London: Longmans, Green, Chapter, page 272:

     […] she “thought her family was done, and poor Mrs. Manichild had such a lot of them”; and in consequence had to carry her “after-clap” to church, and get a new “set-out” of clothes for him, the others having gone the like way to the perambulator, she had forgotten to whom.

   • 1946, Conrad Richter, chapter 19, in The Fields‎^[39], New York: Knopf, published 1964, page 273:

     But now after all that time this new baby had showed up, making its mam out a liar. Such a babe is always a little joke to the countryside. Folks call it the afterclap, for the clap of thunder that comes after you reckon the storm is over.

10. (slang, obsolete) A sweet food, drink, or tobacco product consumed at the end of a meal.

    Synonyms: dessert, digestif

    • 1883, Nathan D. Urner, “In the Use of Language”, in Never‎^[40], New York: G.W. Carleton, page 68:

      Never speak of dinner as “grub,” “hash” or “trough-time,” nor refer to the dessert as “an after-clap.”

    • 1903, Sarah Warner Brooks, chapter 11, in Alamo Ranch‎^[41], Cambridge: MA, page 95:

      They were further regaled with confections and pastry; and the whole was crowned by an ‘afterclap’ of tobacco mixed with aromatic substances, to be enjoyed in pipes, or in the form of cigars, inserted in holders of tortoise shell or silver.

    • 1936, Fulton Oursler (as Anthony Abbot), Murder of a Startled Lady, London: Collins, Chapter 7, p. 272,^[42]

      […] we went on in silence to partake of this never-to-be-forgotten luncheon […] and, as a fitting after-clap, a liqueur from Avignon,

    • 1950, Robert Graves, chapter 23, in The Isles of Unwisdom,‎^[43], London: Cassell, page 371:

      When they had done, I said: ‘Why, gentlemen, I almost forgot the afterclap,’ and rose to fetch it from my cabin. To their amazement I returned with marzipan of Sicily […]

Related terms

• clapback

Etymology 2

From Afrikaans agterklap < agter (“rear, after”) + klap (“flap”).

Noun

afterclap (plural afterclaps)

1. (South Africa, historical) A canvas curtain or tailboard at the rear of a covered wagon.

   Coordinate term: foreclap

   • 1856, Thomas Mayne Reid, chapter 13, in The Bush-Boys,‎^[44], Boston: Ticknor and Fields, page 93:

     And now the “after-clap” of the wagon was hurriedly drawn aside, and three young faces were seen peeping forth.

   • 1905, Reginald Fenton, A Peculiar People in a Pleasant Land, Girard, KS: The Pretoria Publishing Company, Chapter 7, p. 98,^[45]

     […] he felt for his gun, and began fumbling at the fastenings of the afterclap.

   • 1941, Stuart Cloete, chapter 19, in A Hill of Doves,‎^[46], Boston: Houghton Mifflin, published 1942, page 392:

     He was mending the afterclap of the wagon, stitching it up where it was torn, and they [the children] were helping him and playing about him.

   • 2003, Wilbur Smith, The Blue Horizon‎^[47], New York: St. Martin’s, published 2004, page 263:

     They slept late on Sunday mornings, hearing each other wake as the sun shone through the chinks in the afterclap.

See also

• clap back