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anything done or to be done; anything requiring action or effort; business; concern:
an affair of great importance.
affairs, matters of commercial or public interest or concern; the transactions of public or private business or finance:
affairs of state; Before taking such a long trip you should put all your affairs in order.
an event or a performance; a particular action, operation, or proceeding:
When did this affair happen?
thing; matter (applied to anything made or existing, usually with a descriptive or qualifying term):
Our new computer is an amazing affair.
a private or personal concern; a special function, business, or duty:
That’s none of your affair.
an intense amorous relationship, usually of short duration.
an event or happening that occasions or arouses notoriety, dispute, and often public scandal; incident:
the Congressional bribery affair.
a party, social gathering, or other organized festive occasion:
The awards ceremony is the biggest affair on the school calendar.
Contemporary Examples

Diallo lawyers have manifestly followed the Banon and Carlton affairs to bolster their civil suit.
New DSK Book Tells of His Side of Diallo Affair, Prostitution Ring Tracy McNicoll December 1, 2011

We want a decentralized government that will give us more freedom to manage our own affairs.
With Poroshenko on the Ukraine Campaign Trail Bernard-Henri Lévy May 22, 2014

Some of the responsibility for this state of affairs rests with the Supreme Court.
How a 1973 Supreme Court Decision Has Contributed to Our Inequality Geoffrey R. Stone May 14, 2014

She agonizes instead over her affairs and insecurities, her inability to be satisfied with one lover.
‘Mirages’: Anaïs Nin’s Intimate, Unexpurgated Diaries Lizzie Crocker October 25, 2013

And if language is not in accordance with the truth of things, then affairs cannot be successfully carried out.
Find a China Reset Button Orville Schell June 6, 2013

Historical Examples

It was not at first that John could attend to him, and when he was able to do so he began to rattle on about his own affairs.
The Christian Hall Caine

The affairs of others, however, were not more neglected than his own.
The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes Samuel Johnson

It was especially so in the condition of affairs represented to him.
The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, Vol. II Thomas Lord Cochrane

And with one rush the true state of affairs swept over Clif.
A Prisoner of Morro Upton Sinclair

She and Mrs. Caldwell took a kindly interest in each other’s affairs.
The Beth Book Sarah Grand

plural noun
personal or business interests: his affairs were in disorder
matters of public interest: current affairs
noun
a thing to be done or attended to; matter; business: this affair must be cleared up
an event or happening: a strange affair
(qualified by an adjective or descriptive phrase) something previously specified, esp a man-made object; thing: our house is a tumbledown affair
a sexual relationship between two people who are not married to each other
n.

“ordinary business,” late 15c., plural of affair (n.).
n.

c.1300, “what one has to do,” from Anglo-French afere, Old French afaire (12c., Modern French affaire) “business, event; rank, estate,” from the infinitive phrase à faire “to do,” from Latin ad “to” (see ad-) + facere “to do, make” (see factitious).

A Northern word originally, brought into general use and given a French spelling by Caxton (15c.). General sense of “vague proceedings” (in romance, war, etc.) first attested 1702. Meaning “an affair of the heart; a passionate episode” is from French affaire de coeur (itself attested in English from 1809); to have an affair with someone in this sense is by 1726, earlier have an affair of love:

‘Tis manifeſtly contrary to the Law of Nature, that one Woman ſhould cohabit or have an Affair of Love with more than one Man at the ſame time. [“Pufendorf’s Law of Nature and Nations,” transl. J. Spavan, London, 1716]

Thus, in our dialect, a vicious man is a man of pleasure, a sharper is one that plays the whole game, a lady is said to have an affair, a gentleman to be a gallant, a rogue in business to be one that knows the world. By this means, we have no such things as sots, debauchees, whores, rogues, or the like, in the beau monde, who may enjoy their vices without incurring disagreeable appellations. [George Berkeley, “Alciphron or the Minute Philosopher,” 1732]