4 definitions found

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

affection

noun: a positive feeling of liking; "he had trouble expressing the affection he felt"; "the child won everyone's heart" [syn: {affectionateness}, {fondness}, {tenderness}, {heart}, {warmheartedness}]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Affection \Af*fec"tion\, noun [F. affection, L. affectio, fr. afficere. See {Affect}.]

1. The act of affecting or acting upon; the state of being affected.

2. An attribute; a quality or property; a condition; a bodily state; as, figure, weight, etc., are affections of bodies. ''The affections of quantity.'' --Boyle.

And, truly, waking dreams were, more or less, An old and strange affection of the house. --Tennyson.

3. Bent of mind; a feeling or natural impulse or natural impulse acting upon and swaying the mind; any emotion; as, the benevolent affections, esteem, gratitude, etc.; the malevolent affections, hatred, envy, etc.; inclination; disposition; propensity; tendency.

Affection is applicable to an unpleasant as well as a pleasant state of the mind, when impressed by any object or quality. --Cogan.

4. A settled good will; kind feeling; love; zealous or tender attachment; -- often in the pl. Formerly followed by to, but now more generally by for or towards; as, filial, social, or conjugal affections; to have an affection for or towards children.

All his affections are set on his own country. --Macaulay.

5. Prejudice; bias. [Obs.] --Bp. Aylmer.

6. (Med.) Disease; morbid symptom; malady; as, a pulmonary affection. --Dunglison.

7. The lively representation of any emotion. --Wotton.

8. Affectation. [Obs.] ''Spruce affection.'' --Shak.

9. Passion; violent emotion. [Obs.]

Most wretched man, That to affections does the bridle lend. --Spenser.

Syn: Attachment; passion; tenderness; fondness; kindness; love; good will. See {Attachment}; {Disease}.

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

212 Moby Thesaurus words for "affection": Amor, Christian love, Eros, Platonic love, abnormality, access, acute disease, admiration, adoration, adore, affect, affectionateness, affections, affective faculty, affectivity, affliction, agape, ailment, allergic disease, allergy, amativeness, amorousness, ardency, ardor, atrophy, attachment, attack, attention, attribute, bacterial disease, bent, bias, birth defect, blight, bodily love, brotherly love, cardiovascular disease, caritas, character, characteristic, charity, chronic disease, circulatory disease, complaint, complication, concern, condition, congenital defect, conjugal love, crush, defect, deficiency disease, deformity, degenerative disease, demonstrativeness, derangement, desire, devotion, disability, disease, disorder, distemper, disturbance, doting, ecstasy, emotion, emotional charge, emotional life, emotional shade, emotions, enchantment, endemic, endemic disease, endocrine disease, enjoying, epidemic disease, experience, faculty, faithful love, fancy, feature, feeling, feeling tone, feelings, fervor, finer feelings, flame, fondness, foreboding, free love, free-lovism, functional disease, fungus disease, gastrointestinal disease, genetic disease, goatishness, goodwill, gust, gusto, gut reaction, handicap, heart, heartthrob, hereditary disease, hero worship, high regard, horniness, iatrogenic disease, idolatry, idolism, idolization, ill, illness, impression, indisposition, infatuation, infectious disease, infirmity, interest, lasciviousness, leaning, libido, like, likes, liking, love, lovelornness, lovemaking, lovesickness, malady, malaise, mark, married love, morbidity, morbus, muscular disease, neurological disease, nutritional disease, occupational disease, organic disease, pandemic disease, paroxysm, passion, passions, pathological condition, pathology, penchant, physical love, plant disease, popular regard, popularity, predilection, presentiment, profound sense, propensity, property, protozoan disease, psychosomatic disease, rapture, reaction, regard, relish, respiratory disease, response, rockiness, romanticism, savor, secondary disease, seediness, sensation, sense, sensibilities, sentiment, sentimentality, sentiments, sex, sexiness, sexual love, shine, sickishness, sickness, signs, spell, spiritual love, susceptibilities, susceptibility, sympathies, sympathy, symptomatology, symptomology, symptoms, syndrome, taste, tender feeling, tender passion, tender susceptibilities, tenderness, the pip, trait, truelove, turn, undercurrent, urogenital disease, uxoriousness, virtue, virus disease, warmth, wasting disease, weakness, worm disease, worship, yearning

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

Affection feeling or emotion. Mention is made of "vile affections" (Rom. 1:26) and "inordinate affection" (Col. 3:5). Christians are exhorted to set their affections on things above (Col. 3:2). There is a distinction between natural and spiritual or gracious affections (Ezek. 33:32).
  Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information.