FOREIGN, a. for'an. [L. foris, foras.]

1. Belonging to another nation or country; alien; not of the country in which one resides; extraneous. We call every country foreign, which is not within the jurisdiction of our own government- In this sense, Scotland before the union, was foreign to England, and Canada is now foreign to the United States. More generally, foreign is applied to countries more remote than an adjacent territory; as, a foreign market; a foreign prince. In the United States, all transatlantic countries are foreign.
2. Produced in a distant country or jurisdiction; coming from another country; as, foreign goods; goods of foreign manufacture; a foreign minister.
3. Remote; not belonging; not connected; with to or from. You dissemble; the sentiments you express are foreign to your heart. This design is foreign from my thoughts. [The use of from is preferable and best authorized.]
4. Impertinent; not pertaining; not to the purpose. The observation is foreign from the subject under consideration.
5. Excluded; not admitted; held at a distance. Shak.
6. Extraneous; adventitious; not native or natural.
7. In law, a foreign attachment is an attachment of the goods of a foreigner within a city or liberty, for the satisfaction of debt due from the foreigner to a citizen; or an attachment of the money or goods of a debtor, in the hands of another person. A foreign bill of exchange, is a bill drawn by a person in one country, on his correspondent or agent in another, as distinguished from an inland bill, which is drawn by one person on another in the same jurisdiction or country. Foreign plea, a plea or objection to a judge as incompetent to try the question, on the ground that it is not within his jurisdiction. Encyc.

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

   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.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   Kept him a foreign man still; which so grieved him,
   That he ran mad and died. Shak.

   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.