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after the fact
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.
Example Sentences
The motion alleges that Kelly was already attacked by another inmate who, after the fact, wrote a letter saying had put him up to it.
Nothing so great can ever last forever, but the high persists well after the fact, when Benny swings at a football player for calling Sammy a f*g.
Bryant and other bear advocates found the release of such a significant finding so long after the fact confounding.
Despite sound evidence that services such as eviction defense and financial assistance can prevent people from becoming homeless, it’s impossible to know after the fact whether any given person would have become homeless without the help.
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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