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1625, Peter Heylyn, “Of Assyria, Mesopotamia, and Chaldea”, in Mikrokosmos, Oxford, p:
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.
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.
1916, Martha Finley, chapter 19, in Christmas with Grandma Elsie, New York: Dodd, Mead, page 317:
That burglary following so immediately upon the festivities of our delightful Christmas holidays, seemed a most trying and unfortunate afterclap; but we will hope for better things next time.
The consequence (often, but not always, adverse) of an action or event.
My notion is that the Senatorial result in this State is the best that could have been attained. I am not sure about the after-clap, but I think quieter politics in this State will result.
1926, Alice Dunbar Nelson, diary entry, in Gloria T. Hull (ed.), Give Us Each Day: The Diary of Alice Dunbar-Nelson, New York: Norton, 1984, p. 196,
Seems like no matter where I go, if I have a pleasant time, there is always a nasty afterclap of bad checks following me.
2008, Timothy J. Colton, chapter 12, in Yeltsin: A Life, New York: Basic Books, page 306:
As an afterclap of Black Tuesday, the Duma initiated but did not approve a vote of no-confidence in the government.
Emerson spoke of the Mormons. Some one had said, “They impress the common people, through their imagination, by Bible-names and imagery.” “Yes,” he said, “it is an after-clap of Puritanism. ”
1891, Elizabeth Gilbert Martin (translator), Marie Antoinette and the Downfall of Royalty by Arthur-Léon Imbert de Saint-Amand, New York: Scribner, 1891, Chapter 4, p. 32,
The drama of the Revolution is not French alone; it is European. It has its afterclap in every empire, in every kingdom, even to the most distant lands.
A sound that follows another, especially a loud noise, such as thunder.
1687, Cyrano de Bergerac, translated by Archibald Lovell, The Comical History of the States and Empires of the Worlds of the Moon and Sun, London: Henry Rhodes, page 166:
these Thunder-claps so dreadful before, that proceeded from the shock he gave its Enemy, were no more now but the dull Sound of those little After-claps, which denote the end of a Storm;
1862, Johannes Scotus, chapter 17, in The Weird of the Wentworths, volume 1, London: Saunders, Otley, page 178:
the storm wore gradually away, now and then only a faint after-clap grumbled in the distance
1918, Daniel Gregory Mason, chapter 4, in Short Studies of Great Masterpieces, New York: The H.W. Gray Co., pages 36–38:
The first movement opens with a statement, in a bold orchestral unison, of the main theme , the phraseology of which, in four measures, with an after clap or “echo” of the fourth, is characteristic and should be noted.
during the twenty months they would spend in the fortress of La Cabaña listening to rifle reports from the moat, where the executions took place, each crisp volley followed by a precise echo, an afterclap
1594, John Hester, chapter 10, in The Pearle of Practise, London, page 59:
For such as haue this Gonorrhaea, neuer suspecting or fearing the afterclaps, suffer their disease, to grow on further and further till their cure will very hardly or neuer be accomplished.
1678, Thomas Collard, Animadversions upon a Fatal Period, London: Thomas Basset, page 42:
we are not so stupid and zealously Lunatick, as not to fear the frequent Afterclaps (Feavers, Dropsies, Surfeits,) of high and constant debaucheries
1863, Andrew Wynter, Subtle Brains and Lissom Fingers, London: Robert Hardwicke, pages 417–418:
Whilst afterclaps of this kind may always be looked for when any serious injury to the head has arisen from blows or other causes, it does not always follow that the presence of abscess, even in the substance of the brain, is accompanied by any serious symptoms.
1830, John Abernethy, chapter 22, in Surgical and Physiological Works, London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, page 276:
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.
(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).
1755, Peter Drake, The Memoirs of Capt. Peter Drake, Dublin, page 162:
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.”
1914, Charles E. White Jr., What You Should Know When Building a Little House, Philadelphia: The Ladies’ Home Journal, page 33:
An allowance included in the specifications protects the owner from “extras” (because it is involved in the original contract instead of coming in afterwards as an “afterclap”).
(humorous) A child born after the one that was intended to be the last.
1845, Anna Maria Hall, “The Governess”, in The Private Purse, New York: C.S. Francis, page 97:
there are only two girls. No after claps, like my sister Gresham’s little ‘Teddy;’
1906, Molly Elliot Seawell, chapter 1, in The Victory, New York: Appleton, page 10:
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.
1909, John Huntley Skrine, “Beside Women and Children”, in Pastor Ovium, London: Longmans, Green, Chapter, page 272:
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.
But now after all that time this new baby had showed up, making its mam out a liar. Such a babe is always a little joke to the countryside. Folks call it the afterclap, for the clap of thunder that comes after you reckon the storm is over.
(slang,obsolete) A sweet food, drink, or tobacco product consumed at the end of a meal.
1883, Nathan D. Urner, “In the Use of Language”, in Never, New York: G.W. Carleton, page 68:
Never speak of dinner as “grub,” “hash” or “trough-time,” nor refer to the dessert as “an after-clap.”
1903, Sarah Warner Brooks, chapter 11, in Alamo Ranch, Cambridge: MA, page 95:
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,
1950, Robert Graves, chapter 23, in The Isles of Unwisdom,, London: Cassell, page 371:
When they had done, I said: ‘Why, gentlemen, I almost forgot the afterclap,’ and rose to fetch it from my cabin. To their amazement I returned with marzipan of Sicily
1856, Thomas Mayne Reid, chapter 13, in The Bush-Boys,, Boston: Ticknor and Fields, page 93:
And now the “after-clap” of the wagon was hurriedly drawn aside, and three young faces were seen peeping forth.
1905, Reginald Fenton, A Peculiar People in a Pleasant Land, Girard, KS: The Pretoria Publishing Company, Chapter 7, p. 98,
he felt for his gun, and began fumbling at the fastenings of the afterclap.
1941, Stuart Cloete, chapter 19, in A Hill of Doves,, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, published 1942, page 392:
He was mending the afterclap of the wagon, stitching it up where it was torn, and they were helping him and playing about him.
2003, Wilbur Smith, The Blue Horizon, New York: St. Martin’s, published 2004, page 263:
They slept late on Sunday mornings, hearing each other wake as the sun shone through the chinks in the afterclap.
References
^ Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, London: S. Hooper, 1785: “AFTERCLAP, a demand after the first given in has been discharged, a charge for pretended omissions.”
^ John Stephen Farmer and William Ernest Henley, Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present, London, “AFTERCLAP, (American).―An attempt to unjustly extort more in a bargain or agreement than at first settled upon.”
^ H. L. Mencken, The American Language, New York Knopf, 1948, p. 208: “afterclap, a child born long after its siblings;”
^ Jean Branford, A Dictionary of South African English, Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 1980, p. 5: “afterclap: The tailboard or the canvas flap at the rear of the tent of a covered wagon.”