From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishafternoonaf‧ter‧noon1 /ˌɑːftəˈnuːn◂ $ ˌæftər-/ ●●● S1 W2 noun [countable, uncountable] 1 TMCthe part of the day after the morning and before the evening → morning, evening There’s a meeting on Thursday afternoon. It was very hot in the afternoon. See you tomorrow afternoon. Are you going into town this afternoon? We met in the early afternoon. By late afternoon, Micky had changed his mind. He was having his afternoon nap.2 → afternoonsCOLLOCATIONSADJECTIVES/NOUN + afternoonMonday/Friday/Saturday etc afternoonDid you see the football on Saturday afternoon?this afternoon (=today in the afternoon)I'll come round to your house this afternoon.early/late afternoonI arrived in Boston in the early afternoon.all afternoon/the whole afternoonYou left the lights on all afternoon.adverbstomorrow afternoonWhat are you doing tomorrow afternoon?yesterday afternoonI went to see mum yesterday afternoon.AFTERNOON + nounan afternoon nap (=short sleep)Dad was having his Sunday afternoon nap.the afternoon sunIt was too hot to go out in the afternoon sun.afternoon tea (=a light meal eaten in the afternoon with a cup of tea)Some people still have afternoon tea at 4 o'clock.the middle of the afternoonIt was the middle of a long hot summer afternoon.verbsspend the afternoon somewhere/doing somethingWe decided to spend the afternoon in town. GRAMMAR: Patterns with afternoonin the afternoon• You do something in the afternoon: We went shopping in the afternoon. ✗Don’t say: We went shopping on the afternoon.on Monday/Tuesday etc afternoon• You do something on Monday/Tuesday etc afternoon: I usually do the shopping on Friday afternoon.on the afternoon of something• Something happens on the afternoon of a particular date or event: Diana was born on the afternoon of July 1,1961.He had gone there on the afternoon of the murder.
Examples from the Corpus
afternoon• It starts raining and they rush for the car, where they have an afternoon sleep.• This schedule also allots time every afternoon for the teacher to work with children in small group settings.• We did wonder if we would manage to find the place but we located it one wet Sunday afternoon.• So he got in his car and took a check down that afternoon.• Our tickets are for the afternoon performance.• Harry went to sleep in the afternoon.• Do you want to go shopping tomorrow afternoon?• We went swimming on Tuesday afternoon.afternoon nap• If a group is coming to entertain residents, then bring them in after an afternoon nap.• I had bought him a musical tie which woke him up from an afternoon nap when he rolled on to it.• He waited until Lois came upstairs for her little afternoon nap.• On the road, the girls sleep ten hours a night, eat many and formidable meals and take long afternoon naps.• It was by the rice banks, where a coolness congregates near a coconut grove, that I took my afternoon nap.• Nevertheless, recent research indicates that the body is designed for at least one afternoon nap per day.• The afternoon naps, the quaint hours they keep.• He leads me to a dormitory, where eight boys are settling down into one big bed for their afternoon nap.afternoonafternoon2 interjection British English informal used to greet someone when you meet them in the afternoon 