Search

to fasten, join, or attach (usually followed by to):
to affix stamps to a letter.
to put or add on; append:
to affix a signature to a contract.
to impress (a seal or stamp).
to attach (blame, reproach, ridicule, etc.).
something that is joined or attached.
Grammar. a bound inflectional or derivational element, as a prefix, infix, or suffix, added to a base or stem to form a fresh stem or a word, as -ed added to want to form wanted, or im- added to possible to form impossible.
Contemporary Examples

Another girl, pale and thin with a slight smile, had affixed an upside-down black cross to her forehead.
Independent Fashion Bloggers Conference 2012: DKNY PR Girl and More Rachel Small February 8, 2012

Four of those attacks used the same kind of magnetic limpet bomb, affixed to the vehicles of the targets.
Iran’s Changing Calculus: Will It Strike Inside the United States? Eli Lake January 31, 2012

Upstairs, photographs are being scanned for a slide show, then affixed to boards for display at the reception.
Inside a Home Funeral Melissa Roberts Weidman February 4, 2013

His wife, Rita, would wait and pray until she would hear the bicycle squeeze horn he had affixed to the chair.
How Brooklyn’s First Ice Cream Girl Fought City Hall–and Won Michael Daly October 12, 2014

Cordice affixed a surgical clamp to the blade to accord a grip on it.
The Black and White Men Who Saved Martin Luther King’s Life Michael Daly January 19, 2014

Historical Examples

He merely speaks of them as “this small group to which the name of Chappell Isles is affixed in the chart.”
The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders Ernest Scott

He affixed his signature, together with the auditor-general.
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 Various

To this he affixed a cap and fuse, and clapping on his tamp of clay, lit the fuse, and ran into the tunnel.
The White Mice Richard Harding Davis

He affixed his signature to the same, and the said judge signed it.
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 Various

To these are often affixed contrivances for producing hollow, mournful, buzzing sounds, mystifying whole neighborhoods.
Lippincott’s Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, No. 23, February, 1873, Vol. XI. No. 23. Various

verb (transitive; usually foll by to or on) (əˈfɪks)
to attach, fasten, join, or stick: to affix a poster to the wall
to add or append: to affix a signature to a document
to attach or attribute (guilt, blame, etc)
noun (ˈæfɪks)
a linguistic element added to a word or root to produce a derived or inflected form: -ment in establishment is a derivational affix; -s in drowns is an inflectional affix See also prefix, suffix, infix
something fastened or attached; appendage
v.

1530s, from Medieval Latin affixare, frequentative of Latin affigere (past participle affixus) “fasten to, attach,” from ad- “to” (see ad-) + figere “fasten” (see fix (v.)).

First used by Scottish writers and perhaps from Middle French affixer, a temporarily re-Latinized spelling of Old French afichier (Modern French afficher). Related: Affixed; affixing.
n.

1610s, from affix (v.).