affair

Noun

affair (plural affairs)

1. (in plural, often) Something which is done or is to be done; business of any kind, commercial, professional, or public.
   • a difficult affair to manage
   • Responsibility is my affair, reciprocity is his.1992, Zygmunt Bauman, Mortality, Immortality and Other Life Strategies, →ISBN, page 45

   Synonyms:

   matter, concern

2. Any proceeding or action which it is wished to refer to or characterize vaguely.
   • an affair of honor
   • an affair of love

   Synonyms:

   goings-on, happening, befalling, episode, instance, event, hap, incident, occasion, occurrence

3. An action or engagement not of sufficient magnitude to be called a battle.
4. A material object (vaguely designated).
   • He used a hook-shaped affair with a long handle to unlock the car.
   • This garden is a ramshackle affair.
5. An adulterous relationship, chiefly of a married person. (from affaire de cœur, affair of the heart).
   • When Martin's wife found out about his affair with her best friend, she asked for a divorce.
   • Mary had an affair with a woman from the gym.
6. An otherwise illicit romantic relationship, such as with someone who is not one's regular partner (boyfriend, girlfriend).
   • Jerry's girlfriend said she wanted to go steady, but she was in an affair with one of his team-mates.
7. A person with whom someone has an adulterous relationship.
   • I was his affair and he was a little boy toy to me... Together it was our little scandal.2010, “Scandal”, in ABC
   • Turns out she's married; he was her affair.2010 June 20, Pamela Paul, “Today's women can have it all -- including a midlife crisis”, in The Washington Post
8. A party or social gathering, especially of a formal nature.
   • She also guessed that Lady Gladstone had not told them the affair had been planned some time ago. “We are looking forward to visiting you on Friday, Lady Gladstone,” said Harriet. “Geoffrey thought I might have forgotten because you sent us your invitation such ages ago, but I said, 'My dear...2014, M.C. Beaton, The French Affair, →ISBN
9. (archaic, slang) The (male or female) genitals.
   • ... ſhe, with the greateſt effrontery imaginable, unbuttons his breeches, and removing his ſhirt, draws out his affair, ſo ſhrunk and diminiſh’d that I could not but remember the difference, now creſt-fallen, or just faintly lifting its head: but our experinc’d matron very ſoon, by chafing it with...1749, John Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, page 69