1918 P. S. Allen Let. 9 June (1939) 146 At Merton we are hoping to have some ‘overseas’ undergraduates next term.

1919 Athenæum 8 Aug. 727/2 [The soldier] gave nicknames to the Overseas troops, as ‘Aussies’, ‘Diggers’, or ‘Dincums’ for Australians.

1933 A. Thirkell High Rising xi. 195 She'll be able to vamp the overseas students and have a splendid time.

1988 J. Frame Carpathians vi. 39 The town of the Memory Flower, Goes down well with overseas visitors.

1918 Stars & Stripes 8 Feb. 4/5 The officers' Oversea cap will be the same model as that worn by the men, but the material will be that of the officers' uniform.]

1918 Marines Mag. July 33/1 A special cap, officially known as the ‘overseas cap’, is now being worn by the soldiers and marines of the American Expeditionary Force.

1992 Philadelphia Inquirer Mag. 11 Oct. 35/1 When he got to the Pacific in 1942 most naval officers were wearing overseas caps or officer's caps.

1947 Sun (Baltimore) 22 Aug. 6/4 ‘Overseas’ Chinese will participate in the elections not only as voters but as candidates as well.

1972 J. Ball Five Pieces Jade viii. 96 I consider myself a Chinese-American, in other words an American citizen of Chinese descent. So do almost all of us. But to the Chinese in China—Taiwan or the mainland—either way, we are overseas Chinese.

1998 P. Wang Ultimate Passage in Of Flesh & Spirit 79 I had disguised myself as a country woman, but the businessman still recognized me as an overseas Chinese.

1934 W. D. Weatherford & C. S. Johnson Race Relations vi. 99 Overseas experience had been to this point very largely a matter of trading.

1975 Listener 5 July 10 OE, of course, is the abbreviation for overseas experience—and no New Zealander, it is claimed, is complete without it. As well as being vital to emotional and intellectual (and sexual) development, OE very nicely fills that awkward gap between high school and marriage.

1994 Dominion (Wellington) 13 Aug. 15 Simon went [to Australia] too, later returning [to New Zealand] before leaving on his overseas experience.

1900 New Cent. Rev. Dec. 486 No Minister for the Colonies had ever been able to see our vast overseas territories because of the obstructive proximity of the village pump.

1962 W. O. Henderson Stud. German Colonial Hist. Introd. p. xi Even before the German flag had been hoisted over a single overseas territory there were lively arguments concerning the desirability of founding an overseas empire.

2016 Times (Nexis) 26 July 24 France has overseas territories of which some are in the EU and some outwith.

1558 T. Phaer tr. Virgil Seuen First Bks. Eneidos vi. sig. Q.ii Lyke as foules of waterkynd Assembling flocke them selfs, whan yere of frost hath fyrst begonne, And ouer seas thei seke in warmer londes to take the sonne.

1713 B. Higgons Poem on Peace 14 Of Britain's Queen with Awe and Pleasure hear, Her Thunder dread, and Majesty revere; Her Right o'er Seas by humble Tribute own.

1806 H. H. Brackenridge Cincinnatus in Gaz. Publ. 188 What time the States had settled peace With adversaries over seas.

1838 W. Tennant Anster Fair (new ed.) ii. 11 For over seas the fame of Mag had spread Afar from Scandinavian town to town.

1915 W. S. Maugham Of Human Bondage lxxx. 416 The young man had gone out to bear the White Man's Burden overseas.

1945 Chicago Daily News 2 Aug. 10/7 The men serving overseas, who have got the impression that married women are running wild.

1973 Sci. Amer. Sept. 165/1 The American public is being denied certain drugs available overseas.

1583 P. Stubbes Second Pt. Anat. Abuses sig. D5^v These [goods] they transport ouer seas, whereby they gaine infinit summes of mony.

1631 J. Weever Anc. Funerall Monuments 253 He fled ouer Seas into Denmarke.

a1700 J. Dryden Ceyx & Alcyone in Wks. (1885) XII. 157 Her much-loved lord from perils to protect, And safe o'er seas his voyage to direct.

1729 J. Gay Polly ii. i. 26 Why did you spare him, O'er seas to bear him, Far from his home, and constant bride?

1787 G. Colman Inkle & Yarico i. ii. 12 A voyage over seas had not enter'd my head.

1827 Sweet William in W. Motherwell Minstrelsy 307 Sweet William's gone over seas, Some unco lair to learn.

1842 Ld. Tennyson Walking to Mail in Poems (new ed.) II. 48 He..sick of home went overseas for change.

1888 Mrs. H. Ward Robert Elsmere I. i. v. 135 Then he and his mother and friend fled over seas: he feverishly determined to get well and cheat the fates.

1969 ‘A. Cade’ Turn up Stone i. 10 Michael's previous forays overseas had been limited to..an annual pilgrimage to the Frankfurt Book Fair.

1990 D. Shekerjian Uncommon Genius iii. xiv. 217 It occurred to Ellen that she should take her troupe overseas.

1793 J. O'Keeffe World in Village iv. iii. 53 Yes: but 'twas taken from me by the way, by a most unkind young man—just come from overseas.

a1842 S. Woodworth Raising Wind in Poet. Wks. (1861) II. 52 A more adventurous soul will raise a breeze By seal-clad natives brought from over seas.

1886 O. F. Adams Constantius & Helena in Post-Laureate Idyls 81 The first of Britain's kings Who made the legions sent from overseas By Rome.

1926 A. Bennett Ld. Raingo i. lix. 264 Britons whose secret conceit, compared to the ingenuous self-complacency of overseas, was as Mount Everest to Snowdon.

1966 Listener 8 Sept. 335/1 In the years before the war our financial income from over-seas provided finance to pay for more than a third of our imports.

1984 Sunday Times (Johannesburg) 29 Jan. Both revolve around how terrible it is to live in South Africa when ‘overseas’ appears to offer a brighter future.