[AFTER- 6.] prop. A second game played in order to reverse or improve the issues of the first; hence ‘The scheme which may be laid or the expedients which are practised after the original game has miscarried; methods taken after the first turn of affairs.’ J. After-game at Irish, an old game resembling Back-gammon.

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1631.  Sanderson, 21 Serm., Ad. Aul. I. (1673), 14. He had need be a good Gamester … to play an after-game of reputation.

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1660.  Milton, Free Commw., 427. Losing by a strange after-game of Folly, all the battels we have won.

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1664.  Etheredge, Comical Rev. (Wright), V. ii.

                    Here’s a turn with all my heart
Like an after-game at Irish!

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1713.  Addison, Cato, III. vii. Still there remains an after-game to play.

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1784.  Cowper, Task, II. 762. What can after-games Of riper joys, and commerce with the world … Add to such erudition?

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