Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A consequence, especially of a disaster or misfortune.
  • noun A period of time following a disastrous event.
  • noun A second growth or crop in the same season, as of grass after mowing.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A second mowing of grass from the same land in the same season. Also called lattermath, rowen, or rowett, and in some places, when left long on the ground, fog.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A second moving; the grass which grows after the first crop of hay in the same season; rowen.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete , or farmers' jargon: A second mowing; the grass which grows after the first crop of hay in the same season.
  • noun Hence; that which happens after, that which follows. Has a strongly negative connotation in most contexts, implying a preceding catastrophe.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the consequences of an event (especially a catastrophic event)
  • noun the outcome of an event especially as relative to an individual

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[after + obsolete math, mowing (from Old English mǣth; see mē- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From after- +‎ math (“a mowing”), from Old English mæþ ("a mowing"), from Proto-Germanic *madan, *maþō, *maþwō, *mēdō (“a mowing”), from Proto-Indo-European *(a)mē- (“to mow”). Cognate with Dutch made, mad ("area of ground cleared by a sickle"), German Mahd ("mowing"). Related to Old English māwan ("to mow"). See mow, meadow.

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Examples

  • His coverage of the Hurricane Katrina aftermath is the reason he has lots of fans who watch his show, but actually he acts like a typical CNN talking head now!

    Think Progress » ThinkFast PM: July 5, 2006 2006

  • The tragedy of the aftermath is almost constantly before me.

    George C. Marshall - Nobel Lecture 1953

  • You can buy a ticket for a fifteen minute ride but the ride aftermath is highly depressing.

    Page 2 2009

  • You can buy a ticket for a fifteen minute ride but the ride aftermath is highly depressing.

    Page 2 2009

  • You can buy a ticket for a fifteen minute ride but the ride aftermath is highly depressing.

    Page 2 2009

  • You can buy a ticket for a fifteen minute ride but the ride aftermath is highly depressing.

    Page 2 2009

  • The battles Arthur fights are not romanticized, and particularly their aftermath is not romanticized: Malgwyn, the narrator, has lost a wife and an arm to the Saxons and is not, at the beginning of the book, particularly sure he thanks Arthur for saving him.

    Barnstorming on an Invisible Segway 2009

  • You can buy a ticket for a fifteen minute ride but the ride aftermath is highly depressing.

    Page 2 2009

  • You can buy a ticket for a fifteen minute ride but the ride aftermath is highly depressing.

    Page 2 2009

  • You can buy a ticket for a fifteen minute ride but the ride aftermath is highly depressing.

    Page 2 2009

Comments

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  • I like the etymology of this: after-mowing, regrowth of grass after a harvest in early Summer.

    January 13, 2009