affair

affair
noun
1 event/situation
ADJECTIVE
whole

She saw the whole affair as a great joke.

glittering, grand

I knew that the wedding would be a grand affair.

intimate, low-key, simple
community, local
messy, sad, sordid, sorry (esp. BrE), squalid (esp. BrE)

the newspaper article that exposed this whole sordid affair

VERB + AFFAIR
deal with, handle

Many people have criticized the way the government handled the affair.

be involved in
investigate
PHRASES
sb's involvement in the affair

He has tried to play down his involvement in the affair.

a state of affairs

How did this state of affairs come about?

wash your hands of the affair (= to refuse to be responsible for sth or involved in sth)
2 sexual relationship
ADJECTIVE
brief, casual
clandestine, illicit, secret
adulterous, extramarital

He had an extramarital affair with his secretary.

passionate, steamy, torrid
scandalous
unhappy
love, romantic, sexual

a torrid love affair

gay, homosexual, lesbian
alleged
VERB + AFFAIR
carry on, conduct, have

He's having an affair with a colleague.

cover up, deny
expose
AFFAIR + VERB
go on

How long has the affair been going on?

PREPOSITION
affair between

It's the story of a secret affair between a married teacher and her teenage student.

affair with

an affair with a married man

3 sth that concerns one person/small group
ADJECTIVE
family, sb's own, personal, private

It's a family affair.

VERB + AFFAIR
interfere in, meddle in
PHRASES
sb's affair

What I do at home is my affair.

no affair of sb's

That's no affair of yours.

4 affairs important matters
ADJECTIVE
current

a current-affairs magazine

public
human
domestic, home, internal, national
civic, community, local
external, foreign, global, international, world

the minister for foreign affairs

business, financial, legal
commercial, consumer, cultural, economic, environmental, military, political, religious, social
VERB + AFFAIRS
administer, arrange, attend to, conduct, manage, run

I am trying to arrange my father's financial affairs.

get in order, put in order, set in order, settle, wind up

She went back home to put her affairs in order before she died.

PHRASES
affairs of state

The Cabinet will be discussing certain affairs of state.

a state of affairs

the current state of affairs in schools


Collocations dictionary. 2013.

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Synonyms:

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Affair — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Affair, relación amorosa casual, sin mayor importancia para sus participantes, la cual se centra en la seducción y entrega de placer. Contenido 1 ¿Por qué se provoca? 2 Etimología 3 Historia …   Wikipedia Español

  • affair — 1 Affair, business, concern, matter, thing come into comparison only when they are little more than vague or general terms meaning something done or dealt with. Some or rarely all are used interchangeably in certain similar collocations such as… …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • 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… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • affair — (n.) c.1300, what one has to do, from Anglo French afere, O.Fr. afaire (12c., Mod.Fr. affaire) business, event; rank, estate, from the infinitive phrase à faire to do, from L. ad to (see AD (Cf. ad )) + facere to do, make (see FACTITIOUS …   Etymology dictionary

  • affair — [n1] matter or business to be taken care of; happening activity assignment, avocation, calling, case, circumstance, concern, duty, employment, episode, event, hap, happening, incident, interest, job, mission, obligation, occupation, occurrence,… …   New thesaurus

  • affair — ► NOUN 1) an event of a specified kind or that has previously been referred to. 2) a matter that is a particular person s responsibility. 3) a love affair. 4) (affairs) matters of public interest and importance. ORIGIN from Old French à faire to… …   English terms dictionary

  • affair — [ə fer′] n. [ME afere < OFr afaire < a faire, to do < L ad , to + facere, DO1] 1. a thing to be done; business 2. [pl.] matters of business or concern 3. any matter, occurrence, or thing 4. a social function or gathering …   English World dictionary

  • affair — I noun activity, adventure, avocation, circumstance, duty, employment, enterprise, event, function, happening, incident, interest, matter, occasion, occupation, occurrence, profession, pursuit, subject, transaction, undertaking, work II index… …   Law dictionary

  • Affair — Part of a series on Love …   Wikipedia

  • affair — [[t]əfe͟ə(r)[/t]] ♦♦ affairs 1) N SING: the N 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… …   English dictionary

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