AFFAIR • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Affair

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/əfˈɛr/ Listen

noun

Affair n.

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." "A talent for affairs."

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.

(Mil.) An action or engagement not of sufficient magnitude to be called a battle.

Action; endeavor. (Obs.) "And with his best affair Obeyed the pleasure of the Sun."

A material object (vaguely designated). "A certain affair of fine red cloth much worn and faded."

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Etymology of 'Affair'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Affair" Quotes from Famous Books

... {118} Following that, his thoughts turned, as did those of so many Spanish youths who were of an adventurous disposition, toward the New World. After many setbacks, one of which was caused by a wound received by the hot-blooded young man while engaged in a love affair, and which left a permanent scar upon his upper lip, he finally landed at Santo Domingo in the Spring of 1504. From there he went to Cuba and served under one Diego Velasquez, the governor of that province in some fierce fighting in the island, and ...

— South American Fights and Fighters - And Other Tales of Adventure • Cyrus Townsend Brady

... been out in Flanders in 1914, ten to one I should have been in the retreat from Mons, like Frank, and never anywhere else. Then I'd have given my head to have gone to Gallipoli; but now, well, I'm just as glad I'm not mixed up in that affair. ...

— The Tree of Heaven • May Sinclair

... are going to sign the petition," said Mrs. Staggs. "Everybody agrees that you must, before court meets. And that reminds me, I met Henry Bostic's mother today. The old lady doesn't appear to be at all grieved over the part her son took in the affair. It would nearly kill me if a son of mine had made such ...

— Old Ebenezer • Opie Read

... speaking rapidly. He wore his own sandy hair, and every line of his mean freckled face told of excitement and fear. Him also Lovel recognised—Carstairs, a Scotch informer who had once made a handsome living through spying on conventicles, but had now fallen into poverty owing to conducting an affair of Buckingham's with a brutality which that fastidious nobleman had not bargained for.... Lovel rubbed his eyes and looked again. He knew likewise the man on the floor. It was Sir Edmund Godfrey, and ...

— The Path of the King • John Buchan

... port under what are called "sealed orders," which means that the orders given to the captain by the admiral are not to be opened for a certain number of hours, or until the ship reaches a certain degree of latitude, there is a mystery about the affair which appeals ...

— A Gunner Aboard the "Yankee" • Russell Doubleday

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