following

adj

1. (not-comparable)Coming next, either in sequence or in time.

   “See the following section.”

   “Towards the following morning, the thermometer fell to 5°; and at daylight, there was not an atom of water to be seen in any direction.”

2. (not-comparable)About to be specified.

   “The following words have no definition[…]”

3. (not-comparable)Blowing in the direction of travel, as opposed to headwind; downwind.

   “The following wind sped us on our way.”

prep

1. (proscribed, sometimes)After, subsequent to.

   “Following the meeting, we all had a chat.”

   “We published our findings following a thorough review of others' earlier reports.”

2. In accordance with; as per.

   “Following all relevant safety instructions, administer a dose of the corticosteroid.”

   “Administer a dose of the corticosteroid, following all relevant safety instructions.”

noun

1. A group of followers, attendants or admirers; an entourage.

   “He had a loyal following.”

   “And White Hart Lane was stunned when Rovers scored just five minutes after the restart in front of their away following.”

   “Mikayla has 14.4 million followers on TikTok and it is growing every day, and she has accumulated over one billion likes on the app. She also has 2.5 million followers on Instagram. Both her followings accumulate to an impressive 16.9, almost 17 million followers.”

   “Move Forward, which has built a strong following among young people, appeared to have outperformed expectations.”

2. Vocation; business; profession.
3. (with-definite-article)A thing or things to be mentioned immediately after.

   “The following is a recommendation letter from the president.”

   “The following are the three most important questions.”

4. An account which is followed.

   “When a new user joins Weibo, he should register Weibo and get a unique ID, and then he takes some existing users as his followings and waits for others to follow him.”

   “A follower can follow any other users and receive any kind of tweets from his or her followings.”

   “She scrolled through her [Chloe’s] page and liked a few of her pictures that were like candy to her eyes before thoroughly checking her followings. She then checked Chloe’s followers, which was well over a thousand followers.”

verb

1. (form-of, gerund, participle, present)present participle and gerund of follow