after the fact
Speech parts
1. after the fact - Adjective
2. after the fact - Phrase
Meaning
(law) After the commission of a crime.
Too late; after something is finished or final.
Synonym: post hoc
You made the commitment, and you can't change the terms after the fact.
after-the-fact
Alternative spelling of after the fact
Alternative names
after-the-fact
Synonyms
Antonyms
Related terms
Examples
I finished by saying that it struck me that all the ethical systems I was discussing were after the fact. That is, that people act as they are disposed to, but they like to feel afterwards that they were right and so they invent systems that approve of their dispositions.
I certainly supported a woman's right to choose, but to my mind the time to choose was before, not after the fact.
Hindsight is wonderful. It's always very easy to second guess after the fact.
Because the question for me was always whether that shape we see in our lives was there from the beginning or whether these random events are only called a pattern after the fact. Because otherwise we are nothing.
The problem with every story is you tell it after the fact. Every play-by-play description on the radio, the home runs and strikeouts, even that's delayed a few minutes. Even live television is postponed a couple seconds. Even Sound and light can only go so fast.
The real writer is one who really writes. Talent is an invention like phlogiston after the fact of fire. Work is its own cure. You have to like it better than being loved.