after the fact

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Idioms and Phrases

After an actual occurrence, particularly after a crime. For example, I know the brakes should have been repaired, but that doesn't help much after the fact . The use of fact for a crime dates from the first half of the 1500s. The word became standard in British law and is still used in this way today. The idiom was first recorded in 1769 in the phrase accessories after the fact , referring to persons who assist a lawbreaker after a crime has been committed. Now it is also used more loosely, as in the example above.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

I tried to ease their concerns by letting them know, maybe not directly before we ever committed to the screen, but certainly after the fact that I love this same way you do.

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But if, if we're in a world right now where it's recently clear that we can't fix mistakes or illegalities after the fact, then it does have to be stopped before they happen.

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To begin with, changing the rules for ballot eligibility after the fact violates the due process clause of the U.S.

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You’d preferably like to be talking about it after the fact.”

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Five months after the fact, his swing for the ages was still sinking in.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

aftertax afterthought

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