Aft
adj, adv, name, noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 The rear part (after end) of a ship or other vessel. uncountable, usually
"Holonyms: watercraft < vessel"
- 2 Alternative form of afternoon: the time of day from noon until early evening. alt-of, alternative, dated, slang
"A gents' toilet room might be found in a house that caters for the cheaper class of theatrical patronage, where the slangy language of the "goin' to the mat this aft?" style prevails. A gents toilet room is not found in the Southern Hotel. It either "men's" or "gentlemen's"."
- 1 located at the back of a boat, ship, or airplane
- 1 (nautical, aeronautical) situated at or toward the stern or tail wordnet
- 1 At, near, or towards the stern of a vessel (with the frame of reference within the vessel).
"I came safe on board, but I felt anything but easy about the boat and the boy; my thoughts were not where they should be, for every moment I had to give the boat and the boy a look, and at last I saw a sea strike the boat aft, which gave it a send forward and under, and the next moment he was gone."
- 1 at or near or toward the stern of a ship or tail of an airplane wordnet
- 1 Initialism of American Federation of Teachers. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Mike entered the fore of the plane, but his seat was located in the final row at the aft of the plane."
Etymology
From Old English æftan (“behind”); possibly originally superlative of of (“off”). See after.
Clipping of afternoon.
Related phrases
More for "aft"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.