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. (Milton)
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. (Swift)
4. Held at a distance; excluded; exiled. Kept him a foreign man still; which so grieved him, That he ran mad and died. (Shak) foreign attachment, 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.
Synonym: Outlandish, alien, exotic, remote, distant, extraneous, extrinsic.
Origin: 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.
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.