English
affect
Pronunciation Verb

affect (affects, present participle affecting; past and past participle affected)

  1. (transitive) To influence or alter.
    Synonyms: alter, change, have an effect on, have an impact on, influence
    The experience affected me deeply.
    The heat of the sunlight affected the speed of the chemical reaction.
    • 18, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 16, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify ), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323 ↗:
  2. (transitive) To move to emotion.
    Synonyms: move, touch
    He was deeply affected by the tragic ending of the play.
    • A consideration of the rationale of our passions seems to me very necessary for all who would affect them upon solid and pure principles.
  3. (transitive, pathology) Of an illness or condition, to infect or harm (a part of the body).
    Synonyms: attack, harm, infect
    Hepatitis affects the liver.
  4. (transitive, archaic) To dispose or incline.
    • 1649, [John] Milton, [Eikonoklastes]  […], London: Printed by Matthew Simmons,  […], OCLC 1044608640 ↗:
      men whom they thought best affected to religion and their country's liberty
  5. (transitive, archaic) To tend to by affinity or disposition.
    • The drops of every fluid affect a round figure.
  6. (transitive, archaic) To assign; to appoint.
    • One of the domestics was affected to his special service.
Translations Translations Translations Pronunciation Verb

affect (affects, present participle affecting; past and past participle affected)

  1. (transitive) To make a show of; to put on a pretence of; to feign; to assume. To make a false display of. [from 16th c.]
    to affect ignorance
    He managed to affect a smile despite feeling quite miserable.
    • Careless she is with artful care, / Affecting to seem unaffected.
    • c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene iii]:
      Thou dost affect my manners.
  2. (obsolete, transitive) To aim for, to try to obtain. [15th-19th c.]
    • This proud man affects imperial sway.
  3. (transitive, now rare) To feel affection for (someone); to like, be fond of. [from 16th c.]
    • c. 1589, William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act III, Scene 1,[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Two_Gentlemen_of_Verona_(Shakespeare;_First_Folio)]
      There is a Lady in Verona heere
      Whom I affect: but she is nice, and coy,
      And naught esteemes my aged eloquence.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.10:
      From that day forth she gan to him affect, / And daily more her favour to augment […]
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970 ↗, partition I, section 2, member 4, subsection vii:
      A young gentlewoman in Basil was married […] to an ancient man against her will, whom she could not affect; she was continually melancholy, and pined away for grief {{...}
    • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-History of Britain, London: John Williams, Book 5, p. 173,
      As for Queen Katharine, he rather respected, then affected; rather honoured, then loved her.
    • 1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part 1, canto 1:
      But when he pleased to show 't, his speech / In loftiness of sound was rich; / A Babylonish dialect, / Which learned pedants much affect.
  4. (transitive, obsolete) To show a fondness for (something); to choose. [from 16th c.]
    • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, III.9:
      Amongst humane conditions this one is very common, that we are rather pleased with strange things then with our owne; we love changes, affect alterations, and like innovations.
    • c. 1607, William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, Act I, Scene 2,
      Go, let him have a table by himself, for he does neither affect company, nor is he fit for’t, indeed.
    • 1825, William Hazlitt, “On the Conduct of life: or Advice to a schoolboy” in Table-Talk Volume II, Paris: A. & W. Galignani, p. 284,
      Do not affect the society of your inferiors in rank, nor court that of the great.
Synonyms Translations
  • Russian: люби́ть
Translations Pronunciation Noun

affect (plural affects)

  1. (obsolete) One's mood or inclination; mental state. [14th-17th c.]
  2. (obsolete) A desire, an appetite. [16th-17th c.]
  3. (psychology) A subjective feeling experienced in response to a thought or other stimulus; mood, emotion, especially as demonstrated in external physical signs. [from 19th c.]
    • 1999, Joyce Crick, translating Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, Oxford 2008, p. 62:
      if we are afraid of robbers in a dream, the robbers are certainly imaginary, but the fear is real. This draws our attention to the fact that the development of affects transterm Affectentwicklung in dreams is not amenable to the judgement we make of the rest of the dream-content [...].
    • 2004, Jeffrey Greenberg & Thomas A Pyszczynski, Handbook of Experimental Existential Psychology, p. 407:
      A third study demonstrated that the effects of self-affirmation on self-regulated performance were not due to positive affect.
Related terms Translations

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