after a fashion

Idioms  

1. Also, after a sort. Somehow or other; not very well, as in John can read music, after a fashion, or He managed to paint the house after a sort. The first phrase, in which fashion means “a manner of doing something,” has been so used since the mid-1800s, when it replaced in a fashion. The variant dates from the mid-1500s. Also see in a way; (somehow) or other.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

after a fashion

The wee powered hardtop mechanism does retract, after a fashion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 23, 2026

But even if we’re meant to view our woolly antagonists as sheeple, after a fashion, “The Sheep Detectives” culminates on an optimistic note for both the four-legged and the two.

From Salon ● May 17, 2026

It’s not writing, but after a fashion, it is creating.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2023

“When he was excited, he was excited,” said Ford, who told me that he sometimes got a four-page letter on hotel stationery slipped under his door after a fashion show.

From New York Times ● Jan. 22, 2022

Running about the streets every day and all day long he learned to know the city after a fashion, and he saw this and that of its secret parts.

From "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck

Related Words

• anyway