afternoon

noun

1. 1

   The part of the day from noon or lunchtime until sunset, evening, or suppertime or 6pm.

   Theſe men ſerue God in the forenoone, and the diuell in the after noone;

   The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.

   If the afternoon was fine they strolled together in the park, very slowly, and with pauses to draw breath wherever the ground sloped upward. The slightest effort made the patient cough. He would stand leaning on his stick and holding a hand to his side, and when the paroxysm had passed it left him shaking.

   Here the stripped panelling was warmly gold and the pictures, mostly of the English school, were mellow and gentle in the afternoon light.

2. 2

   figurativeThe later part of anything, often with implications of decline.

   Buck.[…]Theſe both put by a poore petitioner A care-crazd mother of a many children, A beauty-waining and diſtreſſed widow, Euen in the afternoone of her beſt daies Made priſe and purchaſe of his luſtfull eye, Seduc t the pitch and height of al his thoughts, To baſe declenſion and loathd bigamie, By her in his vnlawfull bed he got.

3. 3

   informalA party or social event held in the afternoon.

adverb

1. 1

   archaicIn the afternoon.

   I stayd at home till noone, and recᵈ of Crowders for 3 loods of shilling 2l. 8s.; and afternoone I went with my wife to Wakefeild, where by yᵉ way I spent at Toppitt 8d., and wee lay at Jackson’s all night.

   Afterwards […] they adjourned the court till two in the afternoon, and so went to prayers. Afternoon they called over the names of the rest of the college, demys, chaplains, &c.

   Afternoon we came to Fuchen, or Xucheu, as others call it, where we were forced to stay to have the boat search’d by the Mandarine or customer.

interjection

1. 1

   Variant of good afternoonEllipsis of good afternoon.

Forms

plural

afternoons