afterclap

1. (archaic) An additional adverse event that occurs unexpectedly after an earlier one was thought to be over and done with.Examples: "[…] immediatly after the Vniuersall deluge, Nimrod […] perswaded the people to secure themselues from the like after-claps, by building some stupendious Edifice, which might resist the fury of a second deluge."; "What plaguy mischiefs and mishaps Do dog him still with after-claps!"; "AFTERCLAPS, unpleasant things coming after affairs which were supposed ended."archaic

2. (archaic) An unfavourable turn of events following a favourable situation; an eventuality for which one ought to be prepared.Examples: "[…] as cookes among all their sawces doo mind nothing lesse than sobernesse: so these in the abundance of their ioies, thought nothing of afterclaps […]"; "To spare a little for an after clappe Were not improuidence."; "1770, Thomas Bridges, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, London: S. Hooper, 3rd ed., Volume I, p. 7, May you all live to see Troy out, And when you’ve storm’d the Trojan gaps, May you escape all after-claps."Synonyms: calamity, disaster, peril, reversal, setbackarchaic

3. (uncountable, medicine, obsolete) Urethral discharge as a symptom of gonorrhea.Examples: "[…] I have known instances where the gonorrhœa has ceased without leaving any after-clap, or gleet,"; "1877, William Morgan, Contagious Diseases, London: The Homœopathic Publishing Company, Part 1, p. 35, […] the fourth stage of the complaint, known as a “gleet,” or afterclap."Synonyms: gleetobsoleteuncountable

4. (obsolete) A change or attempted change to an agreement after it has been entered into; an additional charge (especially one over and above the previously agreed-upon price).Examples: "[…] he produced my Accompt in his Book, and very generously crossed it out, but I desired a Receipt to prevent any After-claps, which he readily granted, and then I very lovingly took my Leave of him."; "1780, William Cowper, letter to William Unwin in William Hayley (ed.), The Life and Letters of William Cowper, London: J. Johnson, 1812, p. 293, I shall charge you a halfpenny apiece for every copy I send you, the short as well as the long. This is a sort of afterclap you little expected, but I cannot possibly afford them at a cheaper rate."; "1835, Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, “The Horse Swap” in Georgia Scenes, Characters, Incidents, &c., Augusta, GA: S. R. Sentinel, p. 28, “Now,” said Blossom, as he handed Peter the three dollars, “I’m a man, that when he makes a bad trade, makes the most of it until he can make a better. I’m for no rues and after-claps.” “That’s just my way,” said Peter; “I never goes to law to mend my bargains.”"obsolete

5. (humorous) A child born after the one that was intended to be the last.Examples: "[…] there are only two girls. No after claps, like my sister Gresham’s little ‘Teddy;’ […]"; "He was his parents’ Benjamin, the afterclap which had come to them almost in their old age, and was in some sort different to them from their older sons."; "[…] she “thought her family was done, and poor Mrs. Manichild had such a lot of them”; and in consequence had to carry her “after-clap” to church, and get a new “set-out” of clothes for him, the others having gone the like way to the perambulator, she had forgotten to whom."humorous

6. (slang, obsolete) A sweet food, drink, or tobacco product consumed at the end of a meal.Examples: "Never speak of dinner as “grub,” “hash” or “trough-time,” nor refer to the dessert as “an after-clap.”"; "They were further regaled with confections and pastry; and the whole was crowned by an ‘afterclap’ of tobacco mixed with aromatic substances, to be enjoyed in pipes, or in the form of cigars, inserted in holders of tortoise shell or silver."; "1936, Fulton Oursler (as Anthony Abbot), Murder of a Startled Lady, London: Collins, Chapter 7, p. 272, […] we went on in silence to partake of this never-to-be-forgotten luncheon […] and, as a fitting after-clap, a liqueur from Avignon,"Synonyms: dessert, digestifobsoleteslang