noun
1 event/situation
ADJECTIVE
▪ whole
▪
She saw the whole ~ as a great joke.
▪ glittering , grand
▪
I knew that the wedding would be a grand ~.
▪ intimate , low-key , simple
▪ community , local
▪ messy , sad , sordid , sorry ( esp. BrE ), squalid ( esp. BrE )
▪
the newspaper article that exposed this whole sordid ~
VERB + AFFAIR
▪ deal with , handle
▪
Many people have criticized the way the government handled the ~.
▪ be involved in
▪ investigate
PHRASES
▪ sb's involvement in the ~
▪
He has tried to play down his involvement in the ~.
▪ a state of ~s
▪
How did this state of ~s come about?
▪ wash your hands of the ~ (= 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 ~ with his secretary.
▪ passionate , steamy , torrid
▪ scandalous
▪ unhappy
▪ love , romantic , sexual
▪
a torrid love ~
▪ gay , homosexual , lesbian
▪ alleged
VERB + AFFAIR
▪ carry on , conduct , have
▪
He's having an ~ with a colleague.
▪ cover up , deny
▪ expose
AFFAIR + VERB
▪ go on
▪
How long has the ~ been going on?
PREPOSITION
▪ ~ between
▪
It's the story of a secret ~ between a married teacher and her teenage student.
▪ ~ with
▪
an ~ with a married man
3 sth that concerns one person/small group
ADJECTIVE
▪ family , sb's own , personal , private
▪
It's a family ~.
VERB + AFFAIR
▪ interfere in , meddle in
PHRASES
▪ sb's ~
▪
What I do at home is my ~.
▪ no ~ of sb's
▪
That's no ~ 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 ~s
▪ 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 ~s.
▪ get in order , put in order , set in order , settle , wind up
▪
She went back home to put her ~s in order before she died.
PHRASES
▪ ~s of state
▪
The Cabinet will be discussing certain ~s of state.
▪ a state of ~s
▪
the current state of ~s in schools