FOREIGNER (foreigner)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: foreigner   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does foreigner mean? 

• FOREIGNER (noun)
  The noun FOREIGNER has 2 senses:

1. a person who comes from a foreign country; someone who does not owe allegiance to your country

2. someone who is excluded from or is not a member of a group

  Familiarity information: FOREIGNER used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FOREIGNER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who comes from a foreign country; someone who does not owe allegiance to your country

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

alien; foreigner; noncitizen; outlander

Hypernyms ("foreigner" is a kind of...):

traveler; traveller (a person who changes location)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "foreigner"):

au pair (a young foreigner who lives with a family in return for doing light housework)

deportee; exile (a person who is expelled from home or country by authority)

gringo (a Latin American (disparaging) term for foreigners (especially Americans and Englishmen))

import; importee (an imported person brought from a foreign country)

metic (an alien who paid a fee to reside in an ancient Greek city)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone who is excluded from or is not a member of a group

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

foreigner; outsider

Hypernyms ("foreigner" is a kind of...):

alien; stranger; unknown (anyone who does not belong in the environment in which they are found)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "foreigner"):

transalpine (one living on or coming from the other side of the Alps from Italy)

 Context examples 

He spoke good English, sir, and yet I thought he was a foreigner by his accent.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It happens not unfrequently that I am sent for at strange hours by foreigners who get into difficulties, or by travelers who arrive late and wish my services.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Man! but the supersteetion of foreigners is pairfectly rideeculous!

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

"Are they foreigners?" I inquired, amazed at hearing the French language.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But he has a gentleman staying with him, a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I desired the secretary to present my humble duty to the emperor; and to let him know, that I thought it would not become me, who was a foreigner, to interfere with parties; but I was ready, with the hazard of my life, to defend his person and state against all invaders.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Until the foreigners had invented that for themselves they could not make the boat.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The nurse is a foreigner, and Adela was born on the Continent; and, I believe, never left it till within six months ago.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I asked him why, for I feared that he, being a foreigner, might not be quite aware of English legal requirements, and so might in ignorance make some unnecessary trouble.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I had the curiosity to inquire in a particular manner, by what methods great numbers had procured to themselves high titles of honour, and prodigious estates; and I confined my inquiry to a very modern period: however, without grating upon present times, because I would be sure to give no offence even to foreigners (for I hope the reader need not be told, that I do not in the least intend my own country, in what I say upon this occasion,) a great number of persons concerned were called up; and, upon a very slight examination, discovered such a scene of infamy, that I cannot reflect upon it without some seriousness.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)