foreign(a = adj.all) strange - relating to or originating in or characteristic of another place or part of the world; "foreign nations"; "a foreign accent"; "on business in a foreign city"

Antonym: native

foreign(s = adj.all) alien - not contained in or deriving from the essential nature of something; "an economic theory alien to the spirit of capitalism"; "the mysticism so foreign to the French mind and temper"; "jealousy is foreign to her nature"

Derived form noun foreignness₁

foreign(s = adj.all) extraneous - not belonging to that in which it is contained; introduced from an outside source; "water free of extraneous matter"; "foreign particles in milk"

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CIDE DICTIONARY

foreign, a. [OE. forein, F. forain, LL. foraneus, fr. L. foras, foris, out of doors, abroad, without; akin to fores doors, and E. door. See Door, and cf. Foreclose, Forfeit, Forest, Forum.].

Outside; extraneous; separated; alien; as, a foreign country; a foreign government. Milton. [1913 Webster]
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. Atterbury. [1913 Webster]
"Hail, foreign wonder!
Whom certain these rough shades did never breed." [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
"This design is not foreign from some people's thoughts." [1913 Webster]
Held at a distance; excluded; exiled. [1913 Webster]
"Kept him a foreign man still; which so grieved him,
That he ran mad and died." [1913 Webster]

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. Kent. Tomlins. Cowell. -- 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. Kent. Story. -- 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.

Syn. -- Outlandish; alien; exotic; remote; distant; extraneous; extrinsic.

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OXFORD DICTIONARY

foreign, adj.
1 of or from or situated in or characteristic of a country or a language other than one's own.
2 dealing with other countries (foreign service).
3 of another district, society, etc.
4 (often foll. by to) unfamiliar, strange, uncharacteristic (his behaviour is foreign to me).
5 coming from outside (a foreign body lodged in my eye).

Idiom

foreign aid money, food, etc. given or lent by one country to another. foreign exchange
1 the currency of other countries.
2 dealings in these. foreign legion a body of foreign volunteers in an army (esp. the French army). foreign minister (or secretary) a government minister in charge of his or her country's relations with other countries. foreign office a government department dealing with other countries.

Derivative

foreignness n.

Etymology

ME f. OF forein, forain ult. f. L foras, -is outside: for -g- cf. sovereign

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THESAURUS

foreign

accidental, adventitious, alien, apart, barbarian, barbaric, barbarous, curious, detached, disconnected, discrete, disjunct, disrelated, dissociated, distant, distasteful, exotic, exterior, external, exterrestrial, exterritorial, extragalactic, extralateral, extraliminal, extramundane, extramural, extraneous, extraorganismal, extrapolar, extraprovincial, extrasolar, extraterrestrial, extraterritorial, extratribal, extrinsic, foreign-born, immaterial, impersonal, impertinent, imported, inapplicable, inapposite, inappropriate, incommensurable, incomparable, incompatible, incongruous, inconsistent, inconsonant, independent, insular, intrusive, irrelative, isolated, nonsubjective, objective, obnoxious, odd, other, outland, outlandish, outlying, outside, outward, overseas, peculiar, remote, removed, repellent, repugnant, segregate, separate, separated, strange, tramontane, transalpine, transatlantic, transpacific, ulterior, unaffiliated, unallied, unassimilable, unassociated, unconnected, unearthly, unfamiliar, unknown, unrelatable, unrelated

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ROGET THESAURUS

foreign

Irrelation

N irrelation, dissociation, misrelation, inapplicability, inconnection, multifariousness, disconnection, inconsequence, independence, incommensurability, irreconcilableness, heterogeneity, unconformity, irrelevancy, impertinence, nihil ad rem, intrusion, non-pertinence, irrelative, irrespective, unrelated, arbitrary, independent, unallied, unconnected, disconnected, adrift, isolated, insular, extraneous, strange, alien, foreign, outlandish, exotic, not comparable, incommensurable, heterogeneous, unconformable, irrelevant, inapplicable, not pertinent, not to the, purpose, impertinent, inapposite, beside the mark, a propos de bottes, aside from the purpose, away from the purpose, foreign to the purpose, beside the purpose, beside the question, beside the transaction, beside the point, misplaced, traveling out of the record, remote, far-fetched, out of the way, forced, neither here nor there, quite another thing, detached, segregate, disquiparant, multifarious, discordant, incidental, parenthetical, obiter dicta, episodic, parenthetically, by the way, by the by, en passant, incidentally, irrespectively, without reference to, without regard to, in the abstract, a se.

Extraneousness

N extraneousness, extrinsicality, exteriority, alienage, alienism, foreign body, foreign substance, foreign element, alien, stranger, intruder, interloper, foreigner, novus homo, newcomer, immigrant, emigrant, creole, Africander, outsider, Dago, wop, mick, polak, greaser, slant, Easterner, Dutchman, tenderfoot, extraneous, foreign, alien, ulterior, tramontane, ultramontane, excluded, inadmissible, exceptional, in foreign parts, in foreign lands, abroad, beyond seas, over sea on one's travels.

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