affy
Syllables: af·fy/əˈfaɪ/
affy verb: to have faith in (someone); to trust.
Verb
affy (third-person singular simple present affies, present participle affying, simple past and past participle affied)
- To have faith in (someone); to trust.
- Chiefly followed by that or to: to formally affirm or promise (something).
- Chiefly of a man: to formally promise to marry (someone, chiefly a woman); to be engaged to; also, to marry (someone); to espouse.
- He, though affide unto a former love, / To whom his faith he firmely ment to hold, / […] Her graunted love, but with affection cold […]1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- Chiefly followed by to, unto, or with: often of a parent or guardian: to formally promise that (someone) be married to another person; to affiance, to betroth.
- Followed by in, to, or unto: to bind or pledge (someone or something) to another person or thing.
- Chiefly followed by in, on, and upon: to rely on, to trust.
- Marcus Andronicus, so I do affie / In thy vprightnesse and Integrity […]c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
Noun
UK/ˈæfi/
affy (plural affies)
- An affidavit to be signed by a contest winner to confirm eligibility.
- If you have won a monthly prize, they will send you an affy and have you send it back. Then your prize comes from a courier.1997, Sandretto, “Singapore Contest....”, in alt.consumers.sweepstakes (Usenet)
- The contest ended in mid November, I got the affy Christmas eve, and I picked up the car February 4th or 5th.1999, Suzy, “Any BIG winners?”, in alt.consumers.sweepstakes (Usenet)
Forms of affy
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | affies |
| present participle | affying |
| past participle | affied |
| past | affied |
| Noun | |
| plural | affies |
Origin of affy
From Middle English affien (“to have faith, trust”), from Anglo-Norman afier, affier, affyer, Middle French afier, affier, affyer, and Old French afier (“to agree to marry; to believe, trust; to assure, promise; to confide in; to pledge, swear”), from Late Latin affidare (“to betroth; to pledge faith”), from Latin af- (a variant of ad- (intensifying prefix)) + Vulgar Latin *fīdāre (“to trust”) (from Latin fidēre, the present active infinitive of fīdō (“to put confidence in, trust; to rely upon”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeydʰ- (“to convince; to trust”)).
Shortening of affidavit.
Words formed from affy
Words that rhyme with affy
Questions about affy
- What does affy mean?
- Affy means to have faith in (someone); to trust.
- What part of speech is affy?
- Affy can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce affy?
- Affy is pronounced /əˈfaɪ/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of affy?
- The past tense of affy is affied.
Words near affy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: affy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-affy1.wav.
Cite this entry: “affy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/affy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.