Adjacent Words

Affair definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

AFFA'IR, n. [L. facere. The primary sense of facio is to urge, drive, impel.]
1. Business of any kind; that which is done, or is to be done; a word of very indefinite and undefinable signification. In the plural, it denotes transactions in general; as human affairs; political or ecclesiastical affairs: also the business or concerns of an individual; as, his affairs are embarrassed.
2. Matters; state; condition of business or concerns.
I have sent that ye may know our affairs. Ephesians 6.
3. In the singular, it is used for a private dispute, or duel; as, an affair of honor; and sometimes a partial engagement of troops.
In the phrase, at the head of affairs, the word means, the public concerns of executing the laws and administering the government.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a vaguely specified concern; "several matters to attend to"; "it is none of your affair"; "things are going well" [syn: matter, affair, thing]
2: a usually secretive or illicit sexual relationship [syn: affair, affaire, intimacy, liaison, involvement, amour]
3: a vaguely specified social event; "the party was quite an affair"; "an occasion arranged to honor the president"; "a seemingly endless round of social functions" [syn: affair, occasion, social occasion, function, social function]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English afere, from Anglo-French afaire, from a faire to do Date: 14th century 1. a. plural commercial, professional, public, or personal business b. matter, concern 2. a procedure, action, or occasion only vaguely specified; also an object or collection of objects only vaguely specified <their house was a 2-story affair> 3. (also affaire) a. a romantic or passionate attachment typically of limited duration ; liaison 2b b. a matter occasioning public anxiety, controversy, or scandal ; case

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a concern; a business; a matter to be attended to (that is my affair). 2 a a celebrated or notorious happening or sequence of events. b colloq. a noteworthy thing or event (was a puzzling affair). 3 = love affair. 4 (in pl.) a ordinary pursuits of life. b business dealings. c public matters (current affairs). Etymology: ME f. AF afere f. OF afaire f. à faire to do: cf. ADO

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Affair Af*fair" ([a^]f*f[^a]r"), n. [OE. afere, affere, OF. afaire, F. affaire, fr. a faire to do; L.. ad + facere to do. See Fact, and cf. Ado.] 1. That which is done or is to be done; matter; concern; as, a difficult affair to manage; business of any kind, commercial, professional, or public; -- often in the plural. ``At the head of affairs.'' --Junius. ``A talent for affairs.'' --Prescott. 2. Any proceeding or action which it is wished to refer to or characterize vaguely; as, an affair of honor, i. e., a duel; an affair of love, i. e., an intrigue. 3. (Mil.) An action or engagement not of sufficient magnitude to be called a battle. 4. Action; endeavor. [Obs.] And with his best affair Obeyed the pleasure of the Sun. --Chapman. 5. A material object (vaguely designated). A certain affair of fine red cloth much worn and faded. --Hawthorne.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(affairs) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. If an event or a series of events has been mentioned and you want to talk about it again, you can refer to it as the affair. The government has mishandled the whole affair... The affair began when customs officials inspected a convoy of 60 tankers... = business, matter N-SING: the N 2. You can refer to an important or interesting event or situation as 'the ... affair'. (mainly JOURNALISM) ...the damage caused to the CIA and FBI in the aftermath of the Watergate affair. N-SING: usu the n-proper N 3. You can describe the main quality of an event by saying that it is a particular kind of affair. Michael said that his planned 10-day visit would be a purely private affair... N-SING: usu supp N 4. You can describe an object as a particular kind of affair when you want to draw attention to a particular feature, or indicate that it is unusual. All their beds were distinctive; Mac's was an iron affair with brass knobs... N-SING: supp N 5. If two people who are not married to each other have an affair, they have a sexual relationship. She was having an affair with someone at work. N-COUNT see also love affair 6. You can use affairs to refer to all the important facts or activities that are connected with a particular subject. He does not want to interfere in the internal affairs of another country... N-PLURAL: usu supp N see also current affairs, state of affairs 7. Your affairs are all the matters connected with your life which you consider to be private and normally deal with yourself. The unexpectedness of my father's death meant that his affairs were not entirely in order. N-PLURAL: usu poss N 8. If you say that a decision or situation is someone's affair, you mean that it is their responsibility, and other people should not interfere. If you wish to make a fool of yourself, that is your affair... = business N-SING: poss N

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Business, concern, function, duty, office, matter, circumstance, question, subject. 2. Event, occurrence, incident, transaction, proceeding, performance. 3. Battle, engagement, combat, conflict, contest, encounter, rencontre, collision, skirmish, brush.

Moby Thesaurus

activities, activity, adulterous affair, adultery, affairs, amor, amour, article, artifact, at home, attempt, bag, beeswax, business, care, commerce, commitment, concern, concernment, contract, cuckoldry, cup of tea, deal, dingus, dofunny, dohickey, doing, dojigger, dojiggy, domajig, domajigger, doodad, dowhacky, effort, employ, employment, engagement, entanglement, enterprise, eppes, eternal triangle, etwas, event, fling, flirtation, flumadiddle, forbidden love, function, gadget, gathering, get-together, gigamaree, gimmick, gizmo, hanky-panky, happening, hickey, hootenanny, hootmalalie, illicit love, incident, infidelity, interest, intrigue, issue, jigger, job, labor, levee, liaison, lookout, love, love affair, material thing, matinee, matter, object, obligation, occasions, occupation, occurrence, operation, palaver, pie, plan, proceeding, program, project, proposition, quelque chose, reception, relationship, responsibility, reunion, romance, romantic tie, salon, service, sociable, social, social affair, social gathering, soiree, something, task, thing, thingum, thingumabob, thingumadad, thingumadoodle, thingumajig, thingumajigger, thingumaree, thingummy, topic, transaction, triangle, undertaking, unfaithfulness, venture, wake, whatchy, widget, work