[OE. þæt æfter-e, f. æfter adv., = OHG. aftar, MHG. after; with superl. OE. æftemest, Goth. aftuma and aftumists. Senses 1, 2 are distinctly the OE. adj.; in the rest there is probably a later adjectival or quasi-adjectival use of the adv.; in expressions like after deeds it is especially difficult to distinguish the adj. and adv.]
I. Of time.
† 1. The second (of two). Obs.
a. 855. O. E. Chron., an. 827. Se æftera [Bretwalda] wæs Ceawlin Wesseaxna cyning.
c. 885. K. Ælfred, Boeth., xix. Þam þe se æfterra deaþ ʓegripþ.
1048. O. E. Chron. Neh ðære æftre Sancte Marie mæssan.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 95. On his efter tocome [= second advent], þet is on domes deie.
2. Next, following.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Luke xiii. 33. Þy æfteran dæʓe.
c. 1160. Hatton Gosp., ibid. Þy æftere daiʓe.
1801. Southey, Thalaba, X. xv. Wks. IV. 361. Thou shalt not go to-morrow, Nor on the after, nor the after day, Nor ever!
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., cii. 158. I dream’d a vision of the dead, Which left my after morn content.
3. By extension: Later, subsequent. a. with time, hours, days, years, ages, etc. (where it may be explained as ellipt. for after-coming). Frequently united to its sb. by the hyphen, which has here only a syntactical value. See AFTER- in comb.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., IV. iv. 293. Which after houres giues leysure to repent.
1641. Termes de la Ley, 138. Any other after Tenant of the land.
1710. Prideaux, Orig. Tithes, v. 268. The after Lawyers whose hands it passed thorough.
1731. Swift, Cass. & Pet., Wks. (1755), IV. I. 164. These rhimes, A monument to after times.
1862. Stanley, Jew. Ch. (1877), I. iii. 54. The name was handed on to after ages.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. iv. 175. The well-known duchy of after times.
1878. J. P. Hopps, Life of Jesus, ii. 10. In after days his mother understood his meaning well.
b. with n. of action or state (where it may be explained as the adv. modifying the contained vb. or adj., as after compliance = a complying afterwards). See AFTER- in comb. 7–9.
1607. Shaks., Cor., II. ii. 43. The maine Point of this our after-meeting.
1758. S. Hayward, Serm., 17. All his after sins were charged on himself alone.
1831. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), I. 416. The sabrers, that produced an after compliance with their mandates.
1837. Lytton, Athens, I. 368. These exploits were the foundation of his after-greatness.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., cxvi. 4. For fuller gain of after bliss.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exped., viii. (1856), 59. Confirmed in our own after experience.
II. Of place.
4. Nearer the rear, hinder, posterior. Chiefly nautical, and probably due to aft (of which perh. regarded as the compar. = more aft): Lying nearer the stern of the ship, of or belonging to the sternward part. In numerous collocations, as after body, cabin, end, guns, ladder, masts, part, quarter, sails, timbers, yards, etc., which are frequently united by the hyphen. See AFTER- in comb. 4.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 199. Ure left eare we ditteð mid ure after ende.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., Aftyr Parte of a beste, or the hyndyr parte or the crowpe, Clunis. Aftyr Parte, or hynder parte of the schyppe, Puppis.
1795. Nelson, in Nicolas’s Disp., II. 13. I ordered the driver and after sails to be braced up.
1837. Marryat, Perc. Keene, xl. (1863), 281. I … contrived to gain the after ladder and descend.
1857. Livingstone, S. Africa, iv. 80. The after part of the body has three or four yellow bars.
1879. W. H. White, in Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 78/2. Supposing a leak to occur in the after portion of the vessel.
III. absol. That which follows, subsequent time or existence; the future.
1830. Tennyson, Poems, 98. He hath felt The vanities of after and before.
1865. Reader, 10 June, 644/3. A range of view which takes in all the before and after of Greek thought.
