after all

adverb

Updated on: 12 Apr 2018

Definition of after all

1 : in spite of considerations or expectations to the contrary : nevertheless

decided to take the train after all

didn't rain after all

2 : in view of all circumstances

literature which is after all only a special department of reading
—W. W. Watt

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Recent Examples of after all from the Web

This is a guy whose nickname is Threekola, after all.

— jeff duncan, NOLA.com, "New-look Nico Mirotic loses beard, finds shot, just in time for Pelicans," 5 Apr. 2018
And after all this time, her passion and motivation just seem to be growing.

— kate siber, Outside Online, "The Mentor: Hilaree Nelson," 3 Apr. 2018
Maybe this attack will be OK after all Orlando City’s first goal, which tied the match at one goal apiece, must have been the type of goal Kreis had been hoping since the first match of the season.

— jordan culver, Pro Soccer USA, "Three things we learned from Orlando City’s 4-3 victory over New York Red Bulls," 1 Apr. 2018
With the heated rhetoric and dwindling opportunity, others wonder whether their journey north was worth it after all.

— www.latimes.com, "A Dream Displaced," 29 Mar. 2018
That is, after all, why AT&T failed in its 2011 effort to acquire T-Mobile.

— william d. cohan, The Hive, "“It’s So Transparently Ridiculous”: Wall Street Groans as Its M&A Future Hangs on Trump’s Sham AT&T Trial," 29 Mar. 2018
Perhaps another cemetery in town with a vault of ashes — after all, the 824 were from Fairmount alone.

— jonathan glover, The Seattle Times, "Trail of ashes: A Spokane man’s work to restore identity to the unclaimed dead," 29 Mar. 2018
But a new study suggests that a clean room storing meteorite samples at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, may not be quite so clean, after all.

— adam mann, Science | AAAS, "NASA ‘clean’ room is contaminated with fungus," 23 Mar. 2018
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle might not be having that banana wedding cake after all.

— caroline hallemann, Town & Country, "The Royal Wedding Cake Will Be a Taste of Home for Meghan Markle," 20 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'after all.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of after all

1590

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