Forms: 3, 56 foren(e, 34, 67, 9 forein(e, -eyn(e, 4, 68 for(r)ain(e, 56 -ayn(e, 46 forreyn(e, 57 -ayne, 68 forr-en, -ei(g)ne, -aign(e, (7 foran, furraine), 6 foreign. [a. OF. forain:popular L. type *forānus, f. forās, for-īs: see FOR- pref.3
Med.L. had forāneus (Sp. foraneo) on the analogy of extrāneus; also forinsecus adj. (f. class.L. forinsecus adv.), which in Eng. Law Latin is the usual equivalent of foreign.]
A. adj.
† 1. Out of doors; outside. A chamber foreign: a privy (cf. FOREIGN sb.). Foreign darkness = outer darkness. Obs.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 310. In to a chambre forene þe gadelyng gan wende.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., I. metr. ii. 3 (Camb. MS.). Allas! how the thought of man, dreint in over-throwinge deepnesse, dulleth, and forleteth his propre cleernesse, mintinge to goon in-to foreine derknesses, as ofte as his anoyous bisinesse wexeth with-oute mesure, that is driven to and fro with worldly windes!
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems, 234.
| This is the name that chaceth away the clips | |
| Of foreyn dirkenesse, as clerkys determyne, | |
| By John remembryd, in th Apocalips, | |
| How liche a lamb his heed he did enclyne. |
† b. Concerned with matters at a distance from home; outside; opposed to domestic. Obs.
1605. in Archæologia (1800), XIII. 316. [The steward] is to see into all offices, soe well forraine, as at home.
a. 1619. Fotherby, Atheom., II. xiii. § 1 (1622), 348. By writing, we may giue direction for our foraine Businesses, though we stay at home: and for our domestical, though we be abroad.
† c. nonce-use. ? Excluded, kept away (from court, or from employment in affairs).
The sense is doubtful: it may be resident abroad (cf. 7), or outside the circle of ones intimate friends (cf. 2 b).
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., II. ii. 129.
| You enuide him; | |
| And fearing he would rise (he was so vertuous) | |
| Kept him a forraigne man still, which so greeud him, | |
| That he ran mad, and dide. |
2. Belonging to other persons or things; not ones own; = L. alienus. Now rare.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., I. pr. iv. 9 (Camb. MS.). Now compelled in accusynge of my name for nede of foreyne moneye [mistranslation of æris alieni necessitate, through pressure of debt]. Ibid., II. pr. v. 32 (Camb. MS). Fortune ne shal neuer makyn þat swyche thynges ben thyne, þat nature of thinges hath maked foreyne fro the.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Church Porch, lxi.
| Keep all thy native good, and naturalize | |
| All forrain of that name; but scorn their ill; | |
| Embrace their activenesse, not vanities: | |
| Who follows all things, forfeiteth his will. |
1733. Pope, Ess. Man, III. 21.
| Nothing is foreign; parts relate to whole; | |
| One all-extending, all-preserving, soul | |
| Connects each being, greatest with the least; | |
| Made beast in aid of man, and man of beast. |
1851. Hussey, The Rise of the Papal Power i. 35. Chrysostoms conduct was throughout a protest against the interference of Bishops in foreign Sees.
† b. Not of ones household or family. Obs.
1604. Shaks., Oth., IV. iii 89.
| They slacke their duties, | |
| And powre our Treasures into forraigne laps. |
† c. Of possessions, expenses: Other than personal. Obs.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, I. xviii. (Arb.), 53. Quick cattel being the first property of any forreine possession. I say forreine, because alway men claimed property in their apparell and armour, and other like things made by their owne trauel and industry.
1721. Strype, Eccl. Mem., II. II. ii. 260. To have their foreign expences after the rate of 100l. a year.
3. Proceeding from other persons or things.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., III. pr. iii. 55 (Camb. MS.). Than, quod she, hath a man nede to seken hym foreyne helpe by whyche he may deffende hys moneye?
1561. T. Norton, Calvins Inst., I. 16. The truthe is then set free from all douting, when not vpholden by forayne aides it self alone sufficeth to susteine it self.
1659. Hammond, On Ps., Pref. § 3. 2. For this therefore we must appeal to Foreign Testimonies, and therein not so much to the diffused Panegyricks which have been largely bestowed on this holy Book by many of the Antient Fathers of the Church.
1712. Sir R. Blackmore, Creation, I. 395.
| Machines, to all Philosophers tis known, | |
| Move by a Foreign Impulse, not their own. |
1834. Mrs. Somerville, Connect. Phys. Sc., x. (1849), 81. In the science of dynamics it is a principle in a system of bodies or of particles revolving about a fixed centre, that the momentum or sum of the products of the mass of each into its angular velocity and distance from the centre is a constant quantity, if the system be not deranged by a foreign cause.
4. Alien in character; not related to or concerned with the matter under consideration; irrelevant, dissimilar, inappropriate. Now only const. from, to.
1393. Gower, Conf., I. 279. A vice foreine fro the lawe.
1622. Callis, Stat. Sewers (1647), 103. The Lord of the Copyhold is not to be taxed for the Soil of the Copyhold; for although he might come to it by forfeiture committed, yet that is a forain possibility.
1665. Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica, 64. Our Authors sense and interpretation seems to me, (as I suppose twill to any one else, who considerately compares it with the Text) forraign, arbitrary, and unnatural.
1672. Marvell, Reh. Transp., I. 118. This is a matter forreign to my Judicature, and therefore I leave him to be trayed by any Jury of Divines.
1701. Swift, Sacramental Test, Wks. 1755, II. I. 128. This design is not so foreign from some peoples thoughts.
1724. A. Collins, Gr. Chr. Relig., 193. To tell the woman, Ye worship ye know not what, relates not to the womans inquiry about the place of worship, but to a matter wholly foreign.
1735. Berkeley, Def. Free-think. in Math., § 42. If you say No, it will then follow that all you have been saying here and elsewhere, about yards, and inches, and decimal fractions, setting forth and insisting on the extreme smallness of the rejectaneous quantity, is quite foreign to the argument, and only a piece of skill to impose upon your reader.
1756. Burke, Subl. & B., III. vi. To leave these foreign examples; if beauty in our own species was annexed to use, men would be much more lovely than women: and strength and agility would be considered as the only beauties.
1821. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. Grace bef. Meat. The plainest diet seems the fittest to be preceded by the grace. That which is least stimulative to appetite, leaves the mind most free for foreign considerations.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xix. A laugh, or something approaching to one, went among those who remembered how hard Oliver had struggled to obtain the character of a fighting man, however foreign to his nature and disposition, and remarked now, that he had met with a mode of death much better suited to his pretensions than to his temper.
1873. Helps, Some Talk about Animals and Their Masters, i. (1875), 16. It would require great skill, energy, and devotion to a purpose foreign from his pursuits, to organise a combination of sheep dealers, who might insist upon provision being made in cattle-carrying ships for the proper treatment of animals.
5. Introduced from outside; not belonging to the place in which it is found; esp. in Surgical use, of substances embedded in tissues of the body.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. ii. III. (1651), 262. There is much in choice of such a chamber or roome in opportune opening and shutting of windowes, excluding forrain aire & windes, and walking abroad at convenient times.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 334. When a Forraine Spirit, Stronger and more Eager than the Spirit of the Body, entreth the Body; As in the Stinging of Serpents.
1664. Power, Experimental Philosophy, II. 133. Though they hold this Spring of Ayr, yet in its dilation will admit of no aether or forrain Substance to enter the pores thereof.
1767. Gooch, Treat. Wounds, I. 123. After cutting the stitches, I discovered, by the probe, this foreign body, and when I had carefully enlarged the wound, extracted it, and by easy and gentle treatment, as our art directs, the would was speedily healed.
1770. Priestley, in Phil. Trans., LX. 204. Though, in this case, part of the electric matter natural to the body must be repelled, to make room for the foreign electricity, its restoration to its natural state was so quick, that no other motion could correspond to it.
1875. Lyells Princ. Geol., I. II. xv. 331. Boulders of a hard chlorite rock equally foreign to the immediate neighbourhood, are also scattered sparingly through the reddish matrix.
6. a. Situated outside an estate, manor, district, parish, province, etc.
[1292. Britton, III. viii. § 5. Vivers foreyns.]
1495. Act 11 Hen. VII., c. 7. If the same persone or persones dwelling in a foren Shire appere.
1511. Act 4 Hen. VIII., c. 4 Preamb. His Realme of Englond have ben grevously vexed and troubeled by reason of outlawries had ageynst theym in forreyn Counties.
1523. Fitzherb., Surv., 3 b. It is to be inquered of forren pastures that is commyn, how many and what beestes and catell & what the lorde may haue in the same, and what the pastur of a beest is worthe by the yere to set.
1676. Degge, Parsons Counsellor, II. v. (1695), 248. If a Forreigner that lives in another Parish depastures a Ground with Cattle bred for the Plow and Pail to be employed in a Forreign Parish, he shall pay Tythe for the Agistment of such Cattel.
1885. E. B. Ivatts, Railw. Managem., 547. To the employees of railway A all other railways in respect to traffic are foreign.
b. Belonging to or coming from another district, county, society, etc.
c. 1460. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 317 Ye schall couer no foren strenger yn no wys under yor franches.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 437. The market house in the neyther ende of the poultrie in London, now called the Stockes, was buylded for the free sale of the foreyn Boocher, and of the foreyn Fishmonger.
c. 1638. Order Priv. Counc., in Penkethman, Artach., H ij b. The forreigne Bakers which bring their Bread to be sold in the market of any Citie.
1891. Daily News, 18 Sept., 3/3. There has been a great demand for foreign labour in Kent.
1895. Guardian, 6 March, 363/3. The foreign examiners [at Durham] are the Regius Professor of Hebrew, Oxford, and the Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History, Cambridge.
† c. ? Dealing with matters outside (the manor).
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4465/6. In the Hands of the foreign Bailiff of Dudley.
7. Situated outside the country; not in ones own land.
In this and the following senses, the word is in British use not applied to parts of the United Kingdom, nor, ordinarily, to British colonies chiefly inhabited by English-speaking people. In the U. S. the designations of foreign corporation, foreign post, are sometimes applied to those belonging to other States of the Union.
1393. Gower, Conf., II. 160.
| Of hem [iles] that fro the lond forein | |
| Lay ope the winde alle pleine. | |
| Ibid., III. 185. | |
| He hath commaunded of his grace, | |
| That I shall come into a place, | |
| Which is forein out in an ile. |
c. 1400. Maundev. (1839), xvii. 183. Whan men gon beȝonde tho iourneyes, toward Ynde and to the foreyn Yles, all is envyronynge the roundnesse of the Erthe and of the See.
c. 1450. Merlin, 577. After hym com the Senescall of the kynge Alein of the forayn londes.
1524. Act 14 & 15 Hen. VIII., c. 1, Preamb. The said outwarde and foren regions.
1611. Heywood, Gold. Age, I. i. Wks. 1874, III. 9.
| Saturne farewell, Ile leaue thee to thy state, | |
| Whilst I in forreigne Kingdomes search my Fate. |
1700. Wallis, in Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), I. 313. In some forain universities the professors (beside their publike lectures) do privately, in their lodging instruct some colleges (as they call them) or select clubs or companies.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 385, The Republic, VI. In some foreign clime which is far away and beyond our ken.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., II. xxxviii. 623. They usually talk of corporations belonging to other States as foreign, and sometimes try to impose special burdens on them.
8. Pertaining to, characteristic of, or derived from another country or nation; not domestic or native.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), 29.
| I am but a foreyn in this cuntre | |
| And haue here no frend me to auayle. |
1535. in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. III. II. 3245. The Bisshoppe of Rome, by Gods lawe, hathe no more jurisdiction wth in this realme than anie oodre foreyne bisshoppe.
1579. Fenton, Guicciard. (1618), 9. To build his suretie vpon forreine strength, seeing he had no confidence in his owne forces, and lesse expectation of trust in the Italian amities.
1611. Heywood, Gold. Age, I. i. Wks. 1874, III. 8.
| Tytan. If my owne land proue thus vnnaturall | |
| Ile purchase forraine aid. |
1655. H. Vaughan, Silex Scint., I. Pref. (1858), 5. The people are every term plentifully furnished with various Foreign vanities.
1676. Hobbes, Iliad, Preface (1686), 4. Forein words, till by long use they become vulgar, are unintelligible to them.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 49, ¶ 9. His Excellency the Czarish Ambassdor has communicated to the States-General, and the Foreign Ministers residing at the Hague, a Copy of a Letter from his Masters Camp, which gives an Account of the entire Defeat of the Swedith Army.
1771. Junius Lett., lix. 308. The only case in which the King can have a right to arm his subjects in general, is that of a foreign force being actually landed upon our coast.
1832. Sir G. C. Lewis, Remarks on the Use and Abuse of Some Political Terms, iii. 26. The public lose the difference between the prices of the foreign and native commodity.
1849. Hare, Serm., II. 435. The plan sprang up in the heart of a forein King.
1875. H. James, R. Hudson, iv. 140. She spoke with a vague foreign accent, as if she had spent her life in strange countries.
b. transf. Unfamiliar, strange.
1881. Illingworth, Serm. in Coll. Chapel, 74. Such language may be a little foreign, but the experience is universal, either in a finer or a coarser form.
9. Carried on or taking place abroad, into or with other countries.
1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VI. (an. 32), 167. Now when foren warre and outward battailes were brought to an ende, and finall conclusion: domesticall dyscorde, and cyuill discencion began again to renewe and aryse, within the Realme of Englande.
1576. A. Fleming, A Panoplie of Epistles, 176. To take on mee a forreigne voyage, to the intent, wee might enioy one anothers familiaritie?
1632. Sanderson, 12 Serm., 475. Take both together, no Christian age or Land can paralell: One formerly, from a forraigne Invasion abroad; another since that, from an hellish Conspiracie at home.
1653. Walton, Angler, i. 33. A man whose forraign imployments in the service of this Nation, and whose experience, learning, wit and cheerfulness, made his company to be esteemed one of the delights of mankind.
1810. C. James, Milit. Dict. (ed. 3). Foreign service signifies any service done out of the limits of Great Britain, Ireland, the islands of Guernsey, Jersey, etc.
1840. Malcom, Trav., 34/1. The foreign trade is extinct, but the town is still flourishing, and keeps up trade with all the chief places in the Gulf of Siam.
10. Dealing with matters concerning other countries. Foreign Office: the department of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; the building in which the business of this department is carried on. Also, intended for use in transactions or correspondence with other countries, as in foreign bill (see quot. 1766), foreign letter-paper.
1655. Sir E. Nicholas, in The Nicholas Papers (Camden), II. 241. Other furraine newes I heare not.
1659. Marvell, Corr., Wks. 18725, II. 12. John Milton, Esqire, Secretarye for the Forrain affaires.
1682. J. Scarlett, The Stile of Exchanges, 15. So are usually all Forreign Bills.
1745. De Foes Eng. Tradesman, Introd. (1841), I. 2. In England the word merchant is understood of none but such as carry on foreign correspondences, importing the goods and growth of other countries, and exporting the growth and manufacture of England to other countries.
1767. Blackstone, Comm., II. xxx. 467. These bills [of exchange] are either foreign, or inland; foreign, when drawn by a merchant residing abroad upon his correspondent in England, or vice versa; and inland, when both the drawer and the drawee reside within the kingdom.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Result, Wks. (Bohn), II. 133. The foreign policy of England, though ambitious and lavish of money, has not often been generous or just.
1859. The Saturday Review, VIII. 16 July, 62/2. The army and the Foreign Office have to a certain extent escaped the constitutionalizing process which has brought the other departments of Government completely under the control of Parliament, and at the same time fortified the Ministers, at every step, with the support of Parliamentary sanction.
1892. E. Reeve, Homeward Bound, 113. No contribution to exceed six pages of foreign note paper.
11. Law. Foreign apposer, attachment (see the sbs.); foreign answer, matter, plea, service (see quots. 1607). † Foreign intent: a constructive sense not implied in the wording of the instrument to be interpreted; opposed to common intent.
1512. Act 4 Hen. VIII., c. 2. Imagenyng & pledyng of feyned and untrew Foreyn pleyes triable in foreyn Countes.
1607. Cowell, Interpr., s.v. Forein aunswer, that is, such an answer, as is not triable in the countie where it is made. [With a reference to Act 15 Hen. VI., c. 5, which reads: Jesques au temps que chescun des ditz foreins severalx responses soit trie.]
1607. Cowell, Interpr., Forein Apposer (forinsecarum oppositor) is an officer in the exchequer, to whom all shyreeues and baylifes doe repaire. Ibid. Forein attachement (Attachiamentum forinsecum) is an attachement of foriners goods, found within a libertie or citie, for the satisfaction of some citizen, to whome the said foriner oweth money. Ibid. Forein mater, that is mater triable in another countie. Ibid. Forein-plea (forinsecum placitum) a refusal of the Iudge as incompetent, because the mater in hand was not within his precincts. Ibid. Forein seruice (forinsecum servitium) that is such service, whereby a meane Lord holdeth ouer of another, without the compasse of his owne fee or else that which a tenant performeth, either to his owne Lord, or to the Lord paramount out of the fee.
a. 1626. Bacon, Max. & Uses Com. Law, x. (1636), 43. It is not so with the grants of a common person, for they shall be extended as well to a forrein intent as to a common intent.
1685. Keble, Kings Bench Rep., II. 132. The Defendant pleads a forein attachment in London of 50 li.
1800. Durnford & East, Cases Kings Bench, VIII. 417. Commanding them to supersede all further prosecution in a foreign attachment in the Mayors court at the suit of the plaintiff.
† ¶ 12. Used to translate L. forensis: Made in open court, public.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., III. pr. iii. 55 (Camb. MS.). For whennes comyn elles alle thyse foreyne compleyntes or quereles of pletynges.
13. quasi-adv. (To fit, go, sail, etc.) foreign, i.e., for foreign parts. (Naut. colloq.)
1829. Marryat, F. Mildmay, v. By return of post, we were ordered to fit foreign. Ibid. (1840), Poor Jack, xiii. We had been paid, in consequence of our being about to sail foreign.
1844. J. T. Hewlett, Parsons & W., xix. But the captain is going foreign, is he not?
14. Comb. Chiefly locative and parasynthetic, as foreign-built, -foliaged, -going, -looking, -made, -manned, † -nationed, -owned, -wrought adjs.
1678. in Marvell, Growth Popery, 64. The Agatha, *Foreign built, 250 Tuns, laden with Deals at Waterwick, in Norway.
1890. Boldrewood, Colonial Reform. (1891), 54. At his feet, down the long incline of the mountain, lay the vast *foreign-foliaged, primeval forests.
1863. H. Cox, Instit., III. v. 658. The regulation of examinations of masters and mates of *foreign-going vessels.
1830. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. IV. (1863), 213. Monsieur was a dark, sallow, *foreign-looking-personage, with tremendous whiskers, who looked at once fierce and foppish.
1895. Daily News, 15 June, 5/4. *Foreign-made machinery.
1599. R. Linche, Fount. Anc. Fiction, H j b. The torch or firebrand (as Pausanias sayth) signifieth that brightnesse and day-resembling splendor, which she so graciously affordeth to the vncertaine steps of forren-nationed pilgrimes, and disconsolate trauellers.
1878. A. L. Perry, Elem. Pol. Econ., 556. Tonnage dues were arranged on a sliding scale,six cents per ton on American ships, thirty cents per ton on American-built but *foreign-owned ships, and fifty cents per ton on all others.
1513. More, in Grafton, Chron. (1568), II. 808. Lawes agaynst *forreign wrought wares.
B. quasi-sb. and sb.
† 1. = FOREIGNER 1. Also, a foreign vessel. Obs.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 322.
| Þe tounes, þe countes, þe foreyns alle aboute, | |
| To þe kyng felle on knes, his powere did þam loute. |
1429. Political Poems (Rolls), II. 143.
| Cristes spouse satte in stablenesse, | |
| Outrayeng foreyns that cam from Babilon. |
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1570), 197. Of these false forrains renneth so great a bande Vnto our shippes, that [etc.].
1612. Brerewood, Lang. & Relig., iii. 19. Concerning Ambassages, Suits, Appeals, or whatsoever other business of the provincials, or Forraigns, nothing was allowed to be handled or spoken in the Senate at Rome, but in the Latin tongue.
1643. Decl. Lords & Com., Reb. Ireland, 50. They took yesterday a Forrain laden with deales.
† b. One not a citizen, or more particularly not a member of the guild, a stranger, an outsider.
c. 1350. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 361. Ȝef a foreyne empledy þe teþynge, þe teþynge ne haþ bote þre dayes to shewynge by þe dayȝe of þ towne.
1487. in Ann. Barber-Surg. Lond. (1890), 581. Ye shall not admytt eny fforen to be of this misterie.
1540. Hyrde, trans. Vives Instr. Chr. Wom. (1592), N vj. For citicens favour more one another, than they do forrains.
† 2. Short for chambre foreine (see A. 1). Obs.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 7436. Ful foule ys þat forreyne Þat ys comoun for al certeyne.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 1962, Ariadne.
| The tour, ther as this Theseus is throwe | |
| Doun in the botom derke and wonder lowe, | |
| Was ioyning in the walle to a foreyne. |
1505. in Gage, Thingoe Hundred, 140. To be wrought wth calion & breke, wt foreyns and other necessaries.
1570. Levins, Manip., 201/8. A Forayne, forcia.
3. That part of a town which lies outside the borough or the parish proper. Now local.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., viii. § 82. 314. All the Villages and Hamlets belonging thereunto [Walshall] which they call the forraigne.
1782. Nash, Worcestersh., II. 39. The inhabitants of the foreign of Kidderminster, so called to distinguish them from the inhabitants of the borough.
1856. Glew, Walsall, 3. The parish is in two townships, called the Borough and Foreign, the former containing 100 acres, and the latter 7,782 acres.
1875. Parish, Sussex Gloss., s.v. Foreigner. At Rye, in East Sussex, that part of the parish which lies out of the boundary of the corporation, is called the Foreign of Rye.
b. pl. The outer court of a monastery; also, the space immediately outside the monastic precincts. Obs., but surviving as proper name in various places where monasteries existed.
1668. Wilkes, Plan Canterbury, cited in Willis, Monast. Canterb. (1869), 152. This term is confined in Wilkess plan to the tower in the city wall behind these buildings, which he labels ye forrins.
1799. Hasted, Kent, IV. 575. The space of ground without or foreign to it [the jurisdiction of the church] called the Foreigns, now vulgarly the Follings.
1872. Gloss. Eccl. Terms (ed. Shipley), Foreign Court. The outer court of a monastery. Also called Foreigns.
4. In foreign: abroad.
c. 1618. Fletcher, Q. Corinth, III. i.
| Cra. One that hath, | |
| As people say in forraigne pleasurd him. |
Hence Foreignly adv.; Foreignness.
1611. Cotgr., Peregrinité forrainenesse.
1661. Boyle, Style of Script. (1675), 249. The Forreignness and Obscurity of some Texts will Require as well as the Teeming Richness of others will Bear.
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., I. v. 32. His English had little foreignness except its fluency.
1880. J. Caird, Philos. Relig., vi. 169. When a being or object reveals itself to feeling, it, so to speak, loses any vestige of foreignness or estrangement, and becomes blended with the consciousness to which it is revealed.
1880. G. Meredith, Trag. Com., ix. 169. He rose out of his amazement crying it with a roar, and foreignly beholding himself.