affections

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of affection.

   Her affections shifted from one suitor to the next over the course of the season.

   He guarded his affections carefully after the painful breakup.

   Note

   A plural that reaches across every countable use of affection, not only tender feeling. Affections can be emotions swaying the mind or attachments of love, but also attributes or properties, and in archaic use maladies and morbid symptoms. The spelling is shared with the rare verb form. A possessive or determiner in front, as in her affections or his affections, marks the noun.

2. 2
   verbarchaic

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of affection. The verb is archaic.

   Note

   An ending added to a noun that was turned into an archaic verb meaning "to feel affection for." Because the verb already contains the "for," it takes a direct object with no preposition: she affections him. Outside deliberately old-fashioned writing, current English says she feels affection for him. Elsewhere the same spelling will almost always be the plural noun.

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