Word: afterclap Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From Middle English afterclap, afterclappe, equivalent to after- + clap. Compare Low German achterklap (“afterclap”). Pronunciation: /ˈæftə(ɹ)klæp/, /ˈɑːftə(ɹ)klæp/ 1. An additional adverse event that occurs unexpectedly after an earlier one was thought to be over and done with. Labels: archaic Example: […] 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. Example: What plaguy mischiefs and mishaps Do dog him still with after-claps! 2. An unfavourable turn of events following a favourable situation; an eventuality for which one ought to be prepared. Labels: archaic Example: […] as cookes among all their sawces doo mind nothing lesse than sobernesse: so these in the abundance of their ioies, thought nothing of afterclaps […] Example: To spare a little for an after clappe Were not improuidence. 3. The consequence (often, but not always, adverse) of an action or event. Example: 1753, uncredited translator, The School of Man, London: Lockyer Davis, 2nd ed., pp. 102-103, […] he loves Pleasure; but then, without any Afterclap; fain would he be gathering Roses, but he’s afraid of the Prickles. Example: 1891, Grover Cleveland, letter to William Freeman Vilas in Allan Nevins (ed.), Letters of Grover Cleveland, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1933, p. 244, 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. 4. A phenomenon occurring after a similar earlier one; a later manifestation of something. Example: 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. […]” Example: 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, 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. Example: […] 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; Example: […] the storm wore gradually away, now and then only a faint after-clap grumbled in the distance […] 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. Example: 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. Example: […] we are not so stupid and zealously Lunatick, as not to fear the frequent Afterclaps (Feavers, Dropsies, Surfeits,) of high and constant debaucheries […] 7. Urethral discharge as a symptom of gonorrhea. Labels: obsolete, uncountable Example: […] I have known instances where the gonorrhœa has ceased without leaving any after-clap, or gleet, Example: 1877, William Morgan, Contagious Diseases, London: The Homœopathic Publishing Company, Part 1, p. 35, […] the fourth stage of the complaint, known as a “gleet,” or afterclap. 8. 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). Labels: obsolete Example: […] 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. Example: 1780, William Cowper, letter to William Unwin in William Hayley (ed.), The Life and Letters of William Cowper, London: J. Johnson, 1812, p. 293, 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. 9. A child born after the one that was intended to be the last. Labels: humorous Example: […] there are only two girls. No after claps, like my sister Gresham’s little ‘Teddy;’ […] Example: 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. 10. A sweet food, drink, or tobacco product consumed at the end of a meal. Labels: obsolete, slang Example: Never speak of dinner as “grub,” “hash” or “trough-time,” nor refer to the dessert as “an after-clap.” Example: 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.