after the Lord Mayor's show

prepositional phrase

Said of a disappointing or mundane event occurring straight after an exciting, magnificent, or triumphal event.

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Meanings

prepositional phrase
  1. idiomaticSaid of a disappointing or mundane event occurring straight after an exciting, magnificent, or triumphal event.

    "After the Lord Mayor's Show." Freddy looked up from reading Punch. "What is, old fruit?" "The excitement's gone. Back to dull monotony."

    2006, Jeremy Carrad, Running on Empty, Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie, →ISBN, page 40
    2 more examples

    as is usual on all such occasions, after gaiety comes squalor; or, as we observe in respect to the annual pageant of the City of London that "after the Lord Mayor's Show comes a,—donkey-cart,

    1864, George Waters, Indian gleanings and thoughts of the past, G.H. Windeyer, Chatham, page 154

    The All Whites came into this match hotfoot from their stunning victory over Castres last Tuesday which took them into the semi-final of the prototype European Cup. ... For a while it looked as if it might be a case of after the Lord Mayor's show as Swansea struggled with one of their dozy moods, against Treorchy.

    1995 December 10, Clem Thomas, “White hot Swansea”, in The Independent (UK)

Origin

From the proverb "After the Lord Mayor's show comes the dust-cart" (or "donkey-cart", or "shit-cart"). Bringing up the rear of the Lord Mayor's Show is a team to clean the manure of the pageant's horses.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

after the Lord Mayor's show. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/after%20the%20Lord%20Mayor's%20show

MLA

“after the Lord Mayor's show.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/after%20the%20Lord%20Mayor's%20show. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “after the Lord Mayor's show,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/after%20the%20Lord%20Mayor's%20show.

Source: after the Lord Mayor's show on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.