Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adverb & adjective Out of one's own country.
  • adverb & adjective In a foreign country or countries.
  • adverb & adjective Away from one's home.
  • adverb & adjective In circulation; at large.
  • adverb & adjective Covering a large area; widely.
  • adverb & adjective Not on target; in error.
  • noun A foreign country or countries in which to live or travel.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Broadly; widely; expansively; outward on all or on both sides.
  • Out of or beyond certain limits
  • Absent; gone away, especially to a considerable distance: as, the head of the firm is abroad. In an active state; astir; in circulation: as, there are thieves abroad; rumors of disaster are abroad.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb At large; widely; broadly; over a wide space.
  • adverb Without a certain confine; outside the house; away from one's abode.
  • adverb Beyond the bounds of a country; in foreign countries.
  • adverb Before the public at large; throughout society or the world; here and there; widely.
  • adverb To be at a loss or nonplused.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb Played elsewhere than one's home grounds; as in a sport's team.
  • preposition Throughout, over.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb in a place across an ocean
  • adverb far away from home or one's usual surroundings
  • adverb to or in a foreign country
  • adjective in a foreign country

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English abrod : a-, in, on; see a– + brod, broad; see broad.]

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Examples

  • There are more students from Germany studying abroad than any other European country and it wants half of its students to spend at least a term abroad, giving Germany one of the world's most mobile student populations.

    BBC News - Home 2011

  • He is far more popular than McCain abroad, which is a good start. —

    New Obama Ad on Leadership - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com 2008

  • Mclaren has won a title abroad; Harry Redknapp, on the other hand, probably doesn't know how to spell 'Calais'.

    Ex-England manager Steve McClaren on thin ice at wobbling Wolfsburg | Stuart James 2010

  • This is an Italian-style soup, discovered when I did a term abroad in Florence during my undergraduate degree.

    Archive 2007-11-01 Annemarie 2007

  • This is an Italian-style soup, discovered when I did a term abroad in Florence during my undergraduate degree.

    Many Bean Soup Annemarie 2007

  • I am talking of course about official Canada, but Canada abroad is all of us when we go anywhere and it is business, it is the arts, it is professional groups who are meeting all around the world with their opposite numbers so there is an enormous network of relationships.

    Ritchie, Charles 1984

  • King always makes use of this title abroad Foreign powers.

    The Swedish-Norwegian Union Crisis A History with Documents Karl Nordlund

  • Currently he is part of a Latino Fraternity, Omega Delta Phi, works at the Centro Cultural César Chávez, and even spent a term abroad in Mexico, where he became fluent in Spanish.

    The Daily Barometer 2010

  • But Schenker said this could potentially have allowed students to undertake both a term abroad and two summers abroad, for about the same number of credits as a full term abroad.

    Yale Daily News: Latest Issue 2009

  • Thompson and Clifton's son, William, is on a term abroad in Spain.

    Projo.com Projo Local News 2009

Comments

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  • We had a trip overseas

    March 12, 2007

  • En el extranjero // Similar meaning: overseas

    October 19, 2007

  • Public School Slang: convalescing, out of the sick room.

    April 14, 2009