Word.ws English Dictionary

aftersmile

aftersmile noun: a smile that follows something.

Noun

aftersmile (plural aftersmiles)

  1. A smile that follows something.
    • […] there were funerals as the result of a holy effort (for holy effort still we avow it to have been, and the aftersmile of God hath proved it so).1861, Charles Spurgeon, “Accidents, Not Punishments”, in The New Park Street and Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, volume 7, London: Passmore and Alabaster, published 1862, page 636
    • No night drops down upon the troubled breast, / When heaven’s aftersmile, earth’s teardrops gain, / And mother finds her home and far-off rest.1893 August, Mary Baker Eddy, “The Mother’s Evening Prayer”, in Christian Science Journal, volume 11, number 5, page 193
  2. A facial expression that follows a smile.
    • It made her smile, just a little one, and that was good, but the smile got switched off pretty soon and somehow that made it worse, because there was such a contrast in her face between smile and aftersmile.1992, Judith Saxton, chapter 4, in This Royal Breed,, New York: St. Martin’s Press, page 71

Adjective

aftersmile (not comparable)

  1. Following a smile.
    • The smile was gone, but the face still had an aftersmile glow on it;1988, Herbert Gold, chapter 7, in Dreaming, New York: Donald I. Fine, page 102

Examples of aftersmile in a sentence

  • Wetting his thumb with sly thin aftersmile, he told.1929, Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, New York: Scribner, published 1957, Part 2, Chapter 21, p. 236:
  • Her aftersmile spread into the doubt in her eyes when her head told her that she would soon be able to carry the daylight on her back.1986, Kojo Laing, chapter 3, in Search Sweet Country, San Francisco: McSweeney’s Books, pages 33–34:

Forms of aftersmile

pluralaftersmiles

Origin of aftersmile

From after- + smile.

Questions about aftersmile

What does aftersmile mean?
Aftersmile means a smile that follows something.
How do you use aftersmile in a sentence?
Wetting his thumb with sly thin aftersmile, he told.
What part of speech is aftersmile?
Aftersmile can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of aftersmile?
The plural of aftersmile is aftersmiles.

Words near aftersmile in the dictionary

  1. aftersight
  2. aftersign
  3. aftersigns
  4. afterslip
  5. afterslips
  6. aftersmile
  7. aftersmiles
  8. aftersound
  9. aftersounds
  10. afterspike
  11. afterstories

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: aftersmile (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “aftersmile.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/aftersmile. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.