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foreign service

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noun (often initial capital letters)
  1. a division of the U.S. Department of State or of a foreign office that maintains diplomatic and consular posts and personnel in other countries.
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Origin of foreign service

First recorded in 1925–30
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for foreign service

Historical Examples

  • Let us suppose that he is an officer of a hard-fighting, foreign-service, neglected infantry regiment.

    Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXVIII. February, 1843. Vol. LIII.

    Various

British Dictionary definitions for foreign service

foreign service

noun
  1. mainly US the diplomatic and usually consular personnel of a foreign affairs ministry or foreign office collectively who represent their country abroad, deal with foreign diplomats at home, etc
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
foreign service in Culture

Foreign Service

The professional arm of the executive branch that supplies diplomats for the United States embassies and consulates around the world. Ambassadors, though officially members of the Foreign Service, are sometimes friends of the president of the United States appointed in gratitude for support given during elections.

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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.