af·ter / ˈaftər/ • prep. 1. during the period of time following (an event): shortly after Christmas [as conj.] bathtime ended in a flood after the faucets were left running | [as adv.] Duke Frederick died soon after. ∎  with a period of time rather than an event: after a while. ∎  in phrases indicating something happening continuously or repeatedly: day after day we kept studying. ∎  (used in specifying a time) past: about ten minutes after two. ∎  during the time following the departure of (someone): she cleans up after him.2. behind: she went out, shutting the door after her. ∎  (with reference to looking or speaking) in the direction of someone who is moving further away: she stared after him.3. in pursuit or quest of: chasing after something you can't have.4. next to and following in order or importance: in their order of priorities health comes after housing.5. in allusion to (someone or something with the same or a related name): they named her Pauline, after Barbara's mother. ∎  in imitation of: a drawing after Millet's The Reapers.6. concerning or about: she has asked after Iris's mother.• adj. 1. archaic later: in after years.2. Naut. nearer the stern: the after cabin.PHRASES: after all in spite of any indications or expectations to the contrary: I couldn't come after all.after hours after normal working or opening hours: [as adv.] working after hours [as adj.] an after-hours jazz club. after you a polite formula used to suggest that someone goes in front of or takes a turn before oneself: after you, Mr. Pritchard.

after after a storm comes a calm late 16th century saying, with a figurative use deriving from earlier observations of weather lore, as in Langland's Piers Plowman (1377), ‘After sharpe shoures…moste shene [bright] is the sonne.’
after dinner rest a while, after supper walk a mile the assumption is that dinner is a heavy meal, while supper is a light one. The saying is recorded from the late 16th century, but the precept was current in medieval Latin as post prandium stabis, post coenam ambulabis ‘after luncheon you will stand still, after supper you will walk about.’
after the feast comes the reckoning a period of pleasure or indulgence has to be paid for; recorded from the early 17th century, but now chiefly in modern North American use.

after OE. æfter adv. and prep. = OS., OHG. aftar (Du. achter), ON. aptr, Goth. aftra; Gmc. adv., prob. compar. deriv. of *af- in OE. æftan from behind.
Hence after adj., OE.; later the adv. in attrib. use (cf. next).