afterclaps

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.
   • […] 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.1625, Peter Heylyn, “Of Assyria, Mesopotamia, and Chaldea”, in Mikrokosmos, Oxford, p
2. (archaic) An unfavourable turn of events following a favourable situation; an eventuality for which one ought to be prepared.
   • […] as cookes among all their sawces doo mind nothing lesse than sobernesse: so these in the abundance of their ioies, thought nothing of afterclaps […]1587, Raphael Holinshed et al., “Henrie the Second”, in Chronicles, volume 3, page 93

   Synonyms:

   calamity, disaster, peril, reversal, setback

3. The consequence (often, but not always, adverse) of an action or event.
   • […] he loves Pleasure; but then, without any Afterclap; fain would he be gathering Roses, but he’s afraid of the Prickles.1753, uncredited translator, The School of Man, London: Lockyer Davis, 2nd ed., pp. 102-103

   Synonyms:

   outcome, repercussion, reverberation, upshot

4. A phenomenon occurring after a similar earlier one; a later manifestation of something.
   • 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. […]”1884, Oliver Wendell Holmes, chapter 11, in Ralph Waldo Emerson, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, page 268

   Synonyms:

   echo

5. A sound that follows another, especially a loud noise, such as thunder.
   • […] 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;1687, Cyrano de Bergerac, translated by Archibald Lovell, The Comical History of the States and Empires of the Worlds of the Moon and Sun, London: Henry Rhodes, page 166

   Synonyms:

   echo

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.
   • 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.1594, John Hester, chapter 10, in The Pearle of Practise, London, page 59

   Synonyms:

   sequela, side-effect, symptom

See all 11 meanings of afterclap