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Pursuits; duties; affairs which occupy one's time; usual employment; vocation. There are professions, among the men, no more favorable to these studies than the common avocations of women. Richardson. In a few hours, above thirty thousand men left his standard, and returned to their ordinary avocations. Macaulay. An ir…

asily managed or effected; embarrassing. A long and awkward process. Macaulay. An awkward affair is one that has gone wrong, and is difficult to adjust. C. J. Smith.

A law made by husbandmen respecting rural affairs; a rustic or local law or by-law. [Written also byrlaw, birlie, birley.]

The act or punishment of tossing in a blanket. That affair of the blanketing happened to thee for the fault thou wast guilty of. Smollett.

of trade; a board of directors, trustees, commissioners, etc. Both better acquainted with affairs than any other who sat then at that board. Clarendon. We may judge from their letters to the board. Porteus.

A person or thing that wearies by prolixity or dullness; a tiresome person or affair; any person or thing which causes ennui. It is as great a bore as to hear a poet read his own verses. Hawthorne.

" Hudibras. It is instantly and irrecoverably scattered by our first brunt with some real affair of common life. I. Taylor.

A pastoral poem, representing rural affairs, and the life, manners, and occupation of shepherds; as, the Bucolics of Theocritus and Virgil. Dryden.

Affair; concern; matter; -- used in an indefinite sense, and modified by the connected words. It was a gentle business, and becoming The action of good women. Shak. Bestow Your needful counsel to our business. Shak.

iness; hard at work (either habitually or only for the time being); occupied with serious affairs; not idle nor at leisure; as, a busy merchant. Sir, my mistress sends you word THat she is busy, and she can not come. Shak.

One who officiously concerns himself with the affairs of others; a meddling person. And not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. 1 Tim. v. 13.

event; an instance; a circumstance, or all the circumstamces; condition; state of things; affair; as, a strange case; a case of injustice; the case of the Indian tribes. In any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge. Deut. xxiv. 13. If the case of the man be so with his wife. Matt. xix. 10. And when a lady's in the cas…

r disastrous nature; hence, sudden calamity; great misfortune. The strange catastrophe of affairs now at London. Bp. Buret. The most horrible and portentous catastrophe that nature ever yet saw. Woodward.

Any subject of discussion or debate; matter; question; affair in general. What counsel give you in this weighty cause! Shak.

nduct of important matters, as in the performance of religious duties, the transaction of affairs of state, and the celebration of notable events; as, the ceremony of crowning a sovereign; the ceremonies observed in consecrating a church; marriage and baptismal ceremonies. According to all the rites of it, and accordin…

The office of a chargé d'affaires.

, or derived from, a city or citizen; relating to man as a member of society, or to civil affairs. Civic crown (Rom. Antiq.), a crown or garland of oak leaves and acorns, bestowed on a soldier who had saved the life of a citizen in battle.

Pertaining to civic life and affairs, in distinction from military, ecclesiastical, or official state.

A mean, half-hearted fellow; a coward. [Slang, Eng.] It was in the second affair that poor little Barney showed he was a cocktail. Thackeray.

me out at last." Bp. Stillingfleet. (c) To end; to result; to turn out; as, how will this affair come out he has come out well at last.