afterclap
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of afterclap
1300–50; Middle English; compare Low German achterklap; see after, clap 1
Explanation
People may think a period of political unrest is over once the government has restored order — but then there may be an afterclap as protesters take to the streets demanding the police chief resign for not acting soon enough. The clap in afterclap is like the one in thunderclap: a sudden, loud noise — but in this case, it's an unsettling development that comes after people have stopped expecting it. Imagine a thunderstorm full of loud, crashing peals of thunder. It dies down, the sky clears, and the storm is past. But then, all of a sudden, there's another loud clap of thunder! That's the image suggested by the word afterclap: a complex, chaotic situation seems to be over, and then it turns out that it's not.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The afterclap was inevitable, and it soon came.
From A Group of Noble Dames by Thomas Hardy
The glow of the afterclap of danger was on them, and in the warm excitement each forgot the paralyzing fear that had but now padlocked his lips.
From Bucky O'Connor by William MacLeod Raine
Then, like an afterclap of thunder: Father always does the square thing!
From A Spinner in the Sun by Myrtle Reed
N. disappointment; blighted hope, balk; blow; anticlimax; slip 'twixt cup and lip; nonfulfillment of one's hopes; sad disappointment, bitter disappointment; trick of fortune; afterclap; false expectation, vain expectation; miscalculation &c.
From Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget
And then the breakages, damages still chargeable; the probable afterclap?
From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 14 by Thomas Carlyle
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
