alien

& s. [In Ital. alieno, from Lat. alien us (1) belonging to another person or thing not one's own; (2) not related, foreign, strange; (3) unsuitable; (4) hostile (5) diseased in body or mind; fr. ali us = another.] A. As adjective: 1. Of foreign extraction; having been born or had its origin in another country; or simply foreign. (Used specially of man, the inferior animals, plants, or countries.) no honourable service which could not be as well performed by the natives of the realm as by alien mercenaries."- Macaulay : Hist . Eng . , ch. xxiv. "The mother plant admires the leaves unknown Of alien trees, and apples not her own."-Dryden. "Far, far away did seem to mourn and rave On alien shores." Tennyson : The Lotos-eaters. Alien Priories: Priories filled solely by foreign monks. These were suppre ed in the time of Henry V., and the lands given to the crown. They were not again revived in Britain. ( Black stone : Comment ., bk. iv., ch. 8.) 2. Foreign, with the added sense of being estranged from in nature or affection. 149 3. Estranged from; averse to hostile to, wheresoever born. (Used of persons.) "Oft with its fiery force His arm had quelled the foe, And laid, resistle , in its course, The alien armies low."-J. Montgomery. In this sense used with from or to . "The sentiment that arises is a conviction of the deplorable ble state of nature to which sin reduced us; & weak, ignorant creature, alien from God and goodne , and a prey to the great destroyer."- Rogers : Sermon. 4. Incongrous with; inconsistent with; not fitted to harmonise or amalgamate with; in contrariety to the genius of; adverse to. (Used of things.) "To declare my mind to the disciples of the fire, by a similitude not alien from their profe ion. "-Boyle. B. As substantive: I. Ord. Lang. One born in another country than that in which he now resides; a foreigner. for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land."- Exod . xviii. 3. "Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens."- Lam . v. 2 It is sometimes followed by from or to . being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. Ephes . ii. 12. "The lawgiver condemned the persons, who sat idle in divisions dangerous to the government, as aliens to the community, and therefore to be cut off from it."Addioa: Freeholder. II. Technically : Law: A person born out of the British empire, and whose father is not a British subject. The whole body politic may be divided into three cla es: natural-born subjects, constituting the great ma of the people; aliens, or foreigners residing in Britain, but not naturalised; and denizens, who are naturalised aliens. The children of aliens, if the former are born in Britain, are denizens. Formerly an alien could neither purchase nor inherit landed property, and in commercial matters he was taxed more heavily than natural-born subjects. (Black stone's Comment ., bk. iv., ch. 10.) By the Act 7 and 8 Vict., c. 66, pa ed in 1844, various restrictions on aliens were swept away.