Definition of "foreign"

The cane was undoubtedly of foreign make, for it had a solid silver ferrule at one end, which was not English hall–marked.

1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, in The Ayrsham Mystery‎

Foreign companies love to complain about doing business in China. […] Amid such moans it is worth remembering that, for all the barriers that foreign multinationals face in China, it has welcomed them with open arms compared with the protectionism imposed by Japan and South Korea at comparable stages in their economic development.

2013 August 24, “Guardian warriors and golden eggs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8850

[T]his deſign is not ſo foreign from ſome Peoples Thoughts, […]

1708 December 15 (Gregorian calendar; date written), [Jonathan Swift], A Letter from a Member of the House of Commons in Ireland to a Member of the House of Commons in England, Concerning the Sacramental Test, London: […] John Morphew […], published 1709, page 14

Only when one has seen a Control Office at first-hand does one realise the vast amount of unsparing but largely unsung work that is behind the eventual publication, perhaps, of a paragraph in this journal's "Motive Power Miscellany" recording the appearance, within hours of the complete blockage of a main line, of many of its trains, passenger and freight, on routes quite foreign to them; and of effective emergency services either side of the disaster area.

1962 August, G. Freeman Allen, “Traffic control on the Great Northern Line”, in Modern Railways, page 133

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

1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene ii]

Ful foule ys þat forreyneÞat ys comoun for al certeyne.

1303, Richard Mannyng, Handlyng Synne, l. 7436 f