after-warn.adj.
/ˈɑːftəˌwɔː/, /ˈaftəˌwɔː/, U.S. /ˈæftərˌwɔr/ A. n.
1. A later or subsequent war. Now rare.
ΚΠ
1619 H. Ainsworth Annot. Fifth Bk. Moses called Deuteronomie sig. A4/1 The slaughter of Sihon and Og, was an incouragement to Israel, for their after warrs.
1658 W. Sanderson Compl. Hist. Life King Charles 237 He acting all in the after Warre, as the story proceeds to shew in particular.
1813 J. Wood Dict. Bible I. 136/2 In an after war with Midian, Balaam died, falling into the pit which he had digged for others.
1892 Jrnl. U.S. Artillery 1 292 Those of them who were carried into Mexico were well treated, as were also our prisoners that fell into their hands during the after war.
1981 F. Holler Information Sources Polit. Sci. (ed. 3) iv. 187/1 The two world wars brought about not only the most fundamental changes in the political systems of the world but also the afterwars in Korea, Vietnam, and other areas of the world.
2. The period following a war. Also figurative. Cf. post-war n.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > peace > [noun] > time of > time between or after war
after-war1845
post-war1934
1845 Brit. Q. Rev. May 427 So nobly did the Athenians behave, that during the after-war, it would not have been too late for a cordial permanent confederacy.
a1868 T. D. McGee Poems (1869) 273 If our fathers felt the prowess of the steel-clad Norman host, Little had the valiant stranger in the after war to boast.
1939 ‘G. Orwell’ Coming up for Air iii. i. 184 It isn't the war that matters, it's the after-war. The world we're going down into.
1961 J. B. Gremillion Catholic Movement of Employers & Managers ii. 46 Warmly grateful for the friendship shown himself and associates in the bitter chaos of the after-war.
1984 M. Gallant Moslem Wife in R. Sullivan Stories by Canad. Women 214 She put her head on her hands,..and let the first tears of her after-war run down her wrists.
2003 20th-cent. Lit. 49 258 The restorative nostalgia for the ‘world before the war’ in the interwar years put great pressure on the ‘after-war’, demanding that it prove..an eternal spring.
B. adj.
Following a war; of, relating to, or characteristic of the period following a war. Now chiefly with reference to the wars of 1914–18 and 1939–45. Cf. postbellum adj., post-war adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > relative time > the past > historical period > [adjective] > pre- or post-war
antebellum1826
postbellum1841
post-war1853
ante-war1857
after-war1871
inter-war1939
between-war1941
1871 E. Colbert & M. Chamberlin Chicago & Great Conflagration xxviii. 152 The principal building enterprises of the city during the after-war period, were the two tunnels under the river.
1917 M. E. Durham in Albania & Albanians (2001) 83 Of the many after-war questions which will have to be solved, few are more important than the Albanian question.
1919 A. A. Milne First Plays 113 The most suitable career for a young man in after-war conditions.
1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 17 Sept. 694/3 The numerous shady railroad flotations of the after-war period.
1961 M. Cole Story of Fabian Socialism xvii. 263 Making plans for an after-war map of Europe.
2007 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) (Nexis) Sept. 366 She also remembers an after-war party: peeking through the big doors of the ballroom and seeing her mother.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.adj.1619