Definitions

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

  • noun A foreign land.
  • noun The outlying areas of a country; the provinces.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Land lying beyond the limit of occupation or cultivation; outlying or frontier land.
  • noun In feudal law, that part of the land of the manor occupied or enjoyed by the tenants. Also called utland and gesettes-land or gafol-land, as distinguished from inland.
  • Foreign.

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

  • noun The regions of a country or territory remote from the main cities; the outlying provinces.
  • adjective obsolete Foreign; outlandish.
  • adjective Outlying; remote from large cities.

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

  • adjective Provincial: from a province (of the same land).
  • adjective Foreign: from abroad, from a foreign land.
  • adjective Living abroad, living in a foreign land, expatriate.
  • noun Any outlying area of a country; the provinces.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English ūtland ("foreign land, land abroad"), equivalent to out + land. Use in the phrase "outland German" is influenced by (or is a calque of) the German cognate of the same meaning, Auslandsdeutsche (see Ausland). Use in the phrase "outland Chinese" is influenced by (or is a calque of) the Chinese term of the same meaning, 華僑 / 华侨 (huáqiáo).

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Examples

  • I've sent two men back here wounded in the last week" Mykel quickly summarized what had happened, then went on. " we're being called outland Cadnaians, and everyone thinks you've been pushed aside.

    Alector's Choice Modesitt, L. E. 2005

  • There are a couple of passing references to the "outland" beyond this known area, and in one important episode Riddley discovers a boat that has come from somewhere across the sea, washed up with a dead man on board.

    Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban John Mullan 2010

  • So stated, we may see in this singular fact a reminiscence of the time when Mars was really the wild spirit of the "outland," where wolves and human enemies might be met with; he was perhaps in some sense a _hostis_, a stranger, like the many other deities originally strange to Rome who, until the second Punic war, were never allowed to settle within the sacred precincts. [

    The Religious Experience of the Roman People From the Earliest Times to the Age of Augustus W. Warde Fowler 1884

  • No white man, much less no outland man of the other bush-tribes, had gazed upon the Red One and lived.

    THE RED ONE 2010

  • In the war of minds that was almost as important as the war of magic, Darian had gotten a boost with that outfit - he was supposed to be an outland southerner, but he was wearing the clothing of the tribes.

    Elephant in the City 2010

  • Gotta get my 70 ready for WLK and get my 42 up so i can go to outland.

    EXTRALIFE – By Scott Johnson - Today’s Comic: “Questing of the Stars” 2008

  • Continue your initiative with the illegal outland colonies.

    Star Trek: Myriad Universes: Shattered Light David R. George III 2010

  • Koloth must have filed an official report about the outland colonies.

    Star Trek: Myriad Universes: Shattered Light David R. George III 2010

  • Even a company like Blizzard will have difficulties creating a dynamic world on a everyday basis (producing the content for it AND implementing it in the game) - let me explain this further with what i call the "Illidan paradox" (illidan is/was the "endboss" of outland in the burning crusade).

    Medium Rare 2009

  • I've always thought of outland to be most definitly set in the Alien universe.

    Shoot Em Up Director Michael Davis To Remake Outland | /Film 2009

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