DictionaryAI

abroad

Sayuh-BRAWD/əˈbɹɔd/UK/əˈbɹɔːd/

9 meanings of abroad

Practice

  1. 1
    adverb
    In or to a foreign country, beyond the borders of one's own.

    After graduation, he took a job abroad and rarely returned home.

    Many students spend a semester abroad to learn a new language.

    Similaroverseas

    Note

    The everyday meaning, though not the first one. Middle English abrood joined a- "on, in" to brood "broad" and meant widely scattered, which the dated "widely" meaning still keeps. Because abroad is an adverb, it takes no preposition: you live abroad and go abroad, not "go to abroad." It can also follow a noun, as in Andrei Lankov's "an impression abroad" in the New York Times (2013).

  2. 2
    adverb
    Wide of the mark; mistaken, confused, or wandering away from the truth.

    The detective's first theory proved entirely abroad once the new evidence surfaced.

    She felt all abroad, unable to recall how she had gotten home.

    Similaradrift, astray, wrong

  3. 3
    adverb
    At the opposing team's ground rather than one's own home venue.

    The side has struggled to win abroad, dropping points at nearly every visiting ground.

    Supporters traveled for hours to watch their club play abroad against its closest rivals.

    Similaraway

    Oppositehome

    Note

    A sports usage that pairs with "at home": a side wins at home and drops points abroad. In ordinary fixtures it simply means the other team's ground, which need not lie in another country. A club can play abroad a few miles down the road. Where a match really is overseas, the foreign-country sense can blur with this one, so the context has to make the meaning clear.

  4. 4
    preposition
    Throughout or across the whole extent of a place.

    A sudden hush fell abroad the great hall as the king entered.

    Fear spread abroad the kingdom faster than any messenger could ride.

    Similarthroughout, across, over

  5. 5
    adjectivenonstandard
    International; relating to or involving more than one country.

    The report focused on abroad investment and cross-border deals.

    She specializes in abroad relations between the two nations.

    Similarinternational, foreign, overseas

    Oppositedomestic

    Note

    Before a noun, in nonstandard English found chiefly among non-native speakers, the word works as an adjective. It appears almost always in one phrase: an abroad trip. Standard English puts the idea differently, as a trip abroad, a foreign trip or an overseas trip. In careful writing, keep the word after the noun or verb it belongs to, as in travel abroad or a trip abroad.

  6. 6
    noundialectalScotlanduncountable
    Foreign lands or countries considered collectively as a single place.

    The young poet idealized the abroad, imagining it freer than home.

    I hate abroad, abroad’s bloody.
    1929, King George V, widely (and variously) quoted
    Note

    A noun made from the adverb, used like the name of a place and often without an article. King George V's "I hate abroad, abroad's bloody" (1929) is the famous case, and in 2001 the Earl of Onslow told the House of Lords, "I love abroad." The noun tends to arrive with a joke about xenophobia attached. It is rare in general English, and its regional home is Scotland.

Less common meanings

  1. 7
    adverbdated
    Out of doors and away from one's own home, without reference to leaving the country.

    The widow rarely ventured abroad, preferring the quiet of her own parlor.

    I went to St. James', where another was preaching in the court abroad.
    John Evelyn, Diary, Frederic Warne and Company

    Similarout, outdoors, outside

    Oppositeindoors, inside

    Note

    Out of doors rather than out of the country, and now dated. It pairs with be and with verbs of going out, as in Matthew Prior's fox that "roams far abroad" (1718) or Kipling's "walks abroad" in The Return of Imray (1891). Charles W. Chesnutt's The House Behind the Cedars (1900) shows a harsher use: a curfew made it unlawful for Black people, slave or free, to be abroad after nine.

  2. 8
    adverbdated
    Circulating among the public; current in society and moving freely without restriction.

    There was a feeling abroad that change was finally coming.

    This Peece, or Schisme of Suicisme, and Selfishnesse, hath spawned most of the Heresies and Schismes, that are abroad in the World.
    1654, Richard Whitlock, Zootomia

    Similararound, about, afoot

    Note

    Said of news, ideas and moods rather than people: what is abroad is going around. The King James Bible of 1611 has a man "blase abroad the matter," spreading the story everywhere, and Richard Whitlock in 1654 writes of heresies "abroad in the World." The constructions to know are be abroad and there is something abroad. Both give a sentence a deliberately old-fashioned ring.

  3. 9
    adverbdated
    Over a wide space; widely and broadly, scattered across a broad extent.

    The sower cast his grain abroad across the freshly turned earth.

    "Faither!" I cried as I undid the bolt and pushed the leaves of the door abroad, "Faither, ye are welcome hame!"
    1895, Samuel Rutherford Crockett, The Men of the Moss-hags

    Similarwidely, wide, broadly

    Note

    Here the word keeps its root meaning of wide apart, and it now sounds old-fashioned. It follows verbs of spreading and opening: branches spread abroad, and in Samuel Rutherford Crockett's The Men of the Moss-hags (1895) the leaves of a door are pushed abroad, swung wide. A present-day reader may hear "overseas" first, so "wide" or "far and wide" is usually the clearer choice.

Practice

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Origin

First attested in the mid 13th century, from Middle English abrood ("broadly, widely scattered"), formed from a- ("on, in") plus brood ("broad"): that is, a- plus broad.