Affair

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Mil.) An action or engagement not of sufficient magnitude
        to be called a battle.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. Action; endeavor. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              And with his best affair
              Obeyed the pleasure of the Sun.       --Chapman.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. A material object (vaguely designated).
        [1913 Webster]
  
              A certain affair of fine red cloth much worn and
              faded.                                --Hawthorne.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  affair
       n 1: a vaguely specified concern; "several matters to attend to";
            "it is none of your affair"; "things are going well"
            [syn: {matter}, {thing}]
       2: a usually secretive or illicit sexual relationship [syn: {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: {occasion},
           {social occasion}, {function}, {social function}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  124 Moby Thesaurus words for "affair":
     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