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Foreign
Definitions
- 1 Located outside a country or place, especially one's own.
"foreign markets; foreign soil"
- 2 Originating from, characteristic of, belonging to, or being a citizen of a country or place other than the one under discussion.
"foreign car; foreign word; foreign citizen; foreign trade"
- 3 Relating to a different nation.
"foreign policy; foreign navies"
- 4 Not characteristic of or naturally taken in by an organism or system.
"foreign body; foreign substance; foreign gene; foreign species"
- 5 Alien; strange; uncharacteristic.
"It was completely foreign to their way of thinking."
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- 6 Held at a distance; excluded; exiled. obsolete
"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. Canada, US
- 8 Belonging to a different organization, company etc.
"My bank charges me $2.50 every time I use a foreign ATM."
- 9 Outside, outdoors, outdoor. obsolete
- 1 relating to or originating in or characteristic of another place or part of the world wordnet
- 2 of concern to or concerning the affairs of other nations (other than your own) wordnet
- 3 not contained in or deriving from the essential nature of something wordnet
- 4 not belonging to that in which it is contained; introduced from an outside source wordnet
- 1 A foreign person; A foreigner: a person from another country. informal
"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. obsolete
- 3 A foreign person; A non-guildmember. obsolete
- 4 A foreign vehicle; A foreign ship. obsolete
- 5 A foreign vehicle; A foreign whip, a car produced abroad. slang
"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"
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- 6 An outhouse; an outdoor toilet. obsolete
"Ful foule ys þat forreyne Þat ys comoun for al certeyne."
- 7 A foreign area; An area of a community that lies outside the legal town or parish limits. dialectal
- 8 A foreign area; An area of a monastery outside its legal limits or serving as an outer court. obsolete, plural-normally
- 9 Short for various phrases, including foreign language, foreign parts, and foreign service. abbreviation, alt-of
Etymology
From Middle English foreyn, forein, from Old French forain, from Vulgar Latin *forānus (“outsider, outlander”), from Latin forās (“outside, outdoors”) or forīs (“outside, outdoors”). Displaced native Old English elþēodiġ (“foreign”) and now-dialectal English fremd, from Old English fremde (“strange, foreign”). The silent -g- added perhaps by analogy with reign (compare also sovereign which was similarly altered).
From Middle English foreyn, forein, from Old French forain, from Vulgar Latin *forānus (“outsider, outlander”), from Latin forās (“outside, outdoors”) or forīs (“outside, outdoors”). Displaced native Old English elþēodiġ (“foreign”) and now-dialectal English fremd, from Old English fremde (“strange, foreign”). The silent -g- added perhaps by analogy with reign (compare also sovereign which was similarly altered).
See also for "foreign"
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