FOREIGN, adjective for'an. [Latin 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.

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 a 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 or 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.