AFFAIRS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does affairs mean? 

• AFFAIRS (noun)
  The noun AFFAIRS has 2 senses:

1. matters of personal concern

2. transactions of professional or public interest

  Familiarity information: AFFAIRS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AFFAIRS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Matters of personal concern

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

affairs; personal business; personal matters

Context example:

get his affairs in order

Hypernyms ("affairs" is a kind of...):

concern (something that interests you because it is important or affects you)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "affairs"):

dirty laundry; dirty linen (personal matters that could be embarrassing if made public)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Transactions of professional or public interest

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

great affairs of state

Hypernyms ("affairs" is a kind of...):

dealing; dealings; transaction (the act of transacting within or between groups (as carrying on commercial activities))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "affairs"):

international affairs; world affairs (affairs between nations)

politics (the activities and affairs involved in managing a state or a government)

 Context examples 

“Excuse me,” he said, “but it is not my custom to discuss my most intimate personal affairs in this public manner.”

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He sat up and turned his attention to immediate affairs.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Well, Mr. Holmes, that was the state of affairs when I first saw you two days ago.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was not until we had reached home that I began to realize the true state of affairs.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was at home here, and he held his own royally in the badinage, bristling with slang and sharpness, that was always the preliminary to getting acquainted in these swift-moving affairs.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

But these two affairs were only the opening events of the day’s programme.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I shall now settle up all my affairs of earth, and be ready for whatever may come....

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He had managed for me, in my absence, with the soundest judgement; and my worldly affairs were prospering.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I read of men concerned in public affairs, governing or massacring their species.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

It was not very long after this that there occurred the first of the mysterious events that rid us at last of the captain, though not, as you will see, of his affairs.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)