1.
If something happens ~ of something else, it is not affected or influenced at all by that other thing.
It takes in anybody ~ of religion, colour, or creed...
PREP-PHRASE
2.
If you say that someone did something ~, you mean that they did it even though there were problems or factors that could have stopped them, or perhaps should have stopped them.
Despite her recent surgery she has been carrying on ~.
ADV: ADV after v