- native
- [[t]ne͟ɪtɪv[/t]]
♦♦♦natives1) ADJ: ADJ n Your native country or area is the country or area where you were born and brought up.
It was his first visit to his native country since 1948...
Mother Teresa visited her native Albania.
2) N-COUNT: N of n A native of a particular country or region is someone who was born in that country or region.Dr Aubin is a native of St Blaise.
...two Dutch volunteer workmen, natives of Tilburg.
ADJ: ADJ n, v-link ADJ to nNative is also an adjective.Joshua Halpern is a native Northern Californian. ...men and women native to countries such as Japan.
3) N-COUNT Some European people use native to refer to a person living in a non-Western country who belongs to the race or tribe that the majority of people there belong to. This use could cause offence.They used force to banish the natives from the more fertile land.
Syn:ADJ: ADJ nNative is also an adjective.Native people were allowed to retain some sense of their traditional culture and religion.
4) ADJ: ADJ n Your native language or tongue is the first language that you learned to speak when you were a child.She spoke not only her native language, Swedish, but also English and French...
French is not my native tongue.
5) ADJ: ADJ n, v-link ADJ to n Plants or animals that are native to a particular region live or grow there naturally and were not brought there....a project to create a 50 acre forest of native Caledonian pines...
Many of the plants are native to Brazil.
Syn:N-COUNT: N of nNative is also a noun.The coconut palm is a native of Malaysia.
6) ADJ: ADJ n A native ability or quality is one that you possess naturally without having to learn it.We have our native inborn talent, yet we hardly use it.
Syn:7) PHRASE: V inflects (disapproval) If you say that someone who is living away from their own country goes native, you mean that they try to live and dress like the local people.You don't think he's gone native, do you? Perhaps he has married out there and decided he can't come home.
English dictionary. 2008.
