foreign — English Dictionary

Adjective

1. Located outside a country or place, especially one's own.

   Examples

   foreign markets; foreign soil

   He liked visiting foreign cities.

2. Originating from, characteristic of, belonging to, or being a citizen of a country or place other than the one under discussion.

   Examples

   foreign car; foreign word; foreign citizen; foreign trade

   There are many more foreign students in Europe since the Erasmus scheme started.

   More examples (2)

   The cane was undoubtedly of foreign make, for it had a solid silver ferrule at one end, which was not English hall–marked.

   Foreign companies love to complain about doing business in China.[…]Amid such moans it is worth remembering that, for all the barriers that foreign multinationals face in China, it has welcomed them with open arms compared with the protectionism imposed by Japan and South Korea at comparable stages in their economic development.

3. Relating to a different nation.

   Examples

   foreign policy; foreign navies

   More examples (1)

   Plus, the Department of Justice has argued in the past that SGEs are subject to the emoluments clause, which means they cannot take payments from foreign governments.

4. Not characteristic of or naturally taken in by an organism or system.

   Examples

   foreign body; foreign substance; foreign gene; foreign species

5. Alien; strange; uncharacteristic.

   Usage

   • with to

   Examples

   It was completely foreign to their way of thinking.

   [T]his deſign is not ſo foreign from ſome Peoples Thoughts, […]

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   Only when one has seen a Control Office at first-hand does one realise the vast amount of unsparing but largely unsung work that is behind the eventual publication, perhaps, of a paragraph in this journal's "Motive Power Miscellany" recording the appearance, within hours of the complete blockage of a main line, of many of its trains, passenger and freight, on routes quite foreign to them; and of effective emergency services either side of the disaster area.

6. Held at a distance; excluded; exiled.

   Usage

   • Obsolete

   Examples

   Kept him a foreign man still; which so grieved him, / That he ran mad and died.

7. From a different legal jurisdiction (state, province), even if within the same country.

   Usage

   • Canada
   • US usage

8. Belonging to a different organization, company etc.

   Examples

   My bank charges me $2.50 every time I use a foreign ATM.

9. Outside, outdoors, outdoor.

   Usage

   • Obsolete

Noun

1. A foreign person A foreigner: a person from another country.

   Usage

   • Informal

   Examples

   The messaging instructions come in two sets: one for domestics, another for the foreigns.

2. A foreign person An outsider: a person from another place or group.

   Usage

   • Obsolete

3. A foreign person A non-guildmember.

   Usage

   • Obsolete

4. A foreign vehicle A foreign ship.

   Usage

   • Obsolete

5. A foreign vehicle A foreign whip, a car produced abroad.

   Usage

   • Slang

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   In the foreign switching lanes and we riding […] A island I wanna live somewhere silent I'm shining I'm bout to flood my neck with diamonds Yeah I've been spitting facts these niggas lying I'm driving stolens, foreigns, yeah I'm riding

6. An outhouse; an outdoor toilet.

   Usage

   • Obsolete

7. A foreign area An area of a community that lies outside the legal town or parish limits.

   Usage

   • dialectal

8. A foreign area An area of a monastery outside its legal limits or serving as an outer court.

   Usage

   • Obsolete
   • plural-normally

Adjective

1. of concern to or concerning the affairs of other nations (other than your own)

   Antonyms

   domestic

   Examples

   foreign trade

   a foreign office

2. relating to or originating in or characteristic of another place or part of the world

   Synonyms

   strange

   Antonyms

   native

   Examples

   foreign nations

   a foreign accent

   More examples (1)

   on business in a foreign city

3. not contained in or deriving from the essential nature of something

   Synonyms

   alien

   Examples

   an economic theory alien to the spirit of capitalism

   the mysticism so foreign to the French mind and temper

   More examples (1)

   jealousy is foreign to her nature

4. not belonging to that in which it is contained; introduced from an outside source

   Synonyms

   extraneous

   Examples

   water free of extraneous matter

   foreign particles in milk