expatriate

1 of 3

verb

ex·​pa·​tri·​ate ek-ˈspā-trē-ˌāt How to pronounce expatriate (audio)
expatriated; expatriating

transitive verb

1
2
: to withdraw (oneself) from residence in or allegiance to one's native country

intransitive verb

: to leave one's native country to live elsewhere
also : to renounce allegiance to one's native country

expatriate

2 of 3

adjective

ex·​pa·​tri·​ate ek-ˈspā-trē-ət How to pronounce expatriate (audio) -trē-ˌāt How to pronounce expatriate (audio)
: living in a foreign land

expatriate

3 of 3

noun

ex·​pa·​tri·​ate ek-ˈspā-trē-ət How to pronounce expatriate (audio) -trē-ˌāt How to pronounce expatriate (audio)
: a person who lives in a foreign country
Hemingway himself in The Sun Also Rises, 1926, had given the picture of the dislocated life of young English and American expatriates in the bars of Paris, the "lost generation," as Gertrude Stein defined them.Robert Penn Warren

Examples of expatriate in a Sentence

Verb members of the deposed dictator's once-feared political party were expatriated as well Noun while in exile, the deposed king was accompanied by a small band of loyal expatriates
Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
And some plan to expatriate to a nation with a friendlier tax code. Alicia Adamczyk, Fortune, 19 Mar. 2024 Turgenev was also one of the earliest Russian writers to be lionized by Westerners—not just by close friends like Flaubert but also by later figures (some of them expatriates themselves), such as Henry James and Joseph Conrad. The New Yorker, 19 Feb. 2024
Adjective
These jobs tended to be filled by expatriate guest workers: in 2011, Saudis made up less than 15 percent of the private-sector workforce. Jennifer Peck, Foreign Affairs, 19 June 2024 Milan Vaishnav, a political scientist at Carnegie who studies India’s diaspora, said that expatriate Indians were a marginal force in Indian politics and that their campaign donations, while difficult to quantify, were small compared with the billions of dollars raised at home. John Yoon, New York Times, 30 May 2024
Noun
These organizations have made important commitments to employ local, rather than expatriate, staff, which lowers costs. David Miliband, Foreign Affairs, 16 June 2015 In the film, Craig plays Burroughs’ alter ego, habitual heroin user William Lee, who, while spending time with gay American expatriates in Mexico City in the late 1940s, falls in love and embarks on an affair with the preppy ex-military Eugene Allerton (Starkey). Hilary Lewis, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Aug. 2024 See all Example Sentences for expatriate 

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'expatriate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Verb

Medieval Latin expatriatus, past participle of expatriare to leave one's own country, from Latin ex- + patria native country, from feminine of patrius of a father, from patr-, pater father — more at father

First Known Use

Verb

1768, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Adjective

1812, in the meaning defined above

Noun

1818, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of expatriate was in 1768

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Dictionary Entries Near expatriate

Cite this Entry

“Expatriate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/expatriate. Accessed 5 Oct. 2024.

Kids Definition

expatriate

1 of 3 verb
ex·​pa·​tri·​ate ek-ˈspā-trē-ˌāt How to pronounce expatriate (audio)
expatriated; expatriating

expatriate

2 of 3 adjective
ex·​pa·​tri·​ate ek-ˈspā-trē-ˌāt How to pronounce expatriate (audio)
-trē-ət
: living in a foreign country

expatriate

3 of 3 noun
ex·​pa·​tri·​ate
ek-ˈspā-trē-ˌāt,
-trē-ət
: a person living in a foreign country
especially : one who has renounced his or her native country

Legal Definition

expatriate

verb
ex·​pa·​tri·​ate ek-ˈspā-trē-ˌāt How to pronounce expatriate (audio)
expatriated; expatriating

transitive verb

: to voluntarily withdraw (oneself) from allegiance to one's native country

intransitive verb

: to renounce allegiance to one's country and abandon one's nationality voluntarily
expatriate
-trē-ət
noun
expatriation noun

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