FOREIGN • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Foreign

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/fˈɔrən/ /fˈɑrən/ Listen

adjective

Foreign adj.

1.

Outside; extraneous; separated; alien; as, a foreign country; a foreign government. "Foreign worlds."

2.

Not native or belonging to a certain country; born in or belonging to another country, nation, sovereignty, or locality; as, a foreign language; foreign fruits. "Domestic and foreign writers." "Hail, foreign wonder! Whom certain these rough shades did never breed."

3.

Remote; distant; strange; not belonging; not connected; not pertaining or pertient; not appropriate; not harmonious; not agreeable; not congenial; with to or from; as, foreign to the purpose; foreign to one's nature. "This design is not foreign from some people's thoughts."

4.

Held at a distance; excluded; exiled. (Obs.) "Kept him a foreign man still; which so grieved him, That he ran mad and died."

Foreign attachment (Law), a process by which the property of a foreign or absent debtor is attached for the satisfaction of a debt due from him to the plaintiff; an attachment of the goods, effects, or credits of a debtor in the hands of a third person; called in some States trustee, in others factorizing, and in others garnishee process.

Foreign bill, a bill drawn in one country, and payable in another, as distinguished from an inland bill, which is one drawn and payable in the same country. In this latter, as well as in several other points of view, the different States of the United States are foreign to each other. See Exchange, n., 4.

Foreign body (Med.), a substance occurring in any part of the body where it does not belong, and usually introduced from without.

Foreign office, that department of the government of Great Britain which has charge British interests in foreign countries.

Synonyms: Outlandish; alien; exotic; remote; distant; extraneous; extrinsic.

See images of 'Foreign'

Etymology of 'Foreign'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Foreign" Quotes from Famous Books

... compared with him every Sunday morning was full of astute analysis and wit; her little picture of the gloomy young theological student, Latimer, his efforts for his sister, and her innocent, pathetic death in a foreign land had a wonderful realism of touch. She had by pure accident made the child's acquaintance and had been strongly touched and moved. She did not write often, but he read her letters ...

— In Connection with the De Willoughby Claim • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... of those foreign brethren who have recently taken part in our ministry, we deem it just to remark, that the term American was employed in reference to our church, many years before the existence of the political party now ...

— American Lutheranism Vindicated; or, Examination of the Lutheran Symbols, on Certain Disputed Topics • Samuel Simon Schmucker

... follows the most important movements of foreign politics but devotes chief attention to questions of present interest in the United States. Every article is signed and expresses simply the personal view of the writer. Scholarly reviews and brief book ...

— The Enclosures in England - An Economic Reconstruction • Harriett Bradley

... went to America. One was an incident and the other an idea; and when taken together they illustrate the attitude I mean. The first principle is that nobody should be ashamed of thinking a thing funny because it is foreign; the second is that he should be ashamed of thinking it wrong because it is funny. The reaction of his senses and superficial habits of mind against something new, and to him abnormal, is a perfectly healthy ...

— What I Saw in America • G. K. Chesterton

... of the law term "premunire," meaning that the soul has trusted in a foreign jurisdiction, incurred God's anger, and forfeited its liberty ...

— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

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