strangerstrang‧er /ˈstreɪndʒə $ -ər/ ●●○ W2 noun [countable] 
Children must not talk to strangers.perfect/complete/total stranger (=used to emphasize that you do not know them) Julie finds it easy to speak to complete strangers. ► Do not use stranger to mean ‘a person from another country’. Use foreigner or, more politely, say that someone is from abroad/overseas.2be no stranger to something to have had a lot of a particular kind of experience: a politician who is no stranger to controversy3someone in a new and unfamiliar place: ‘Where’s the station?’ ‘Sorry, I’m a stranger here myself.’4hello, stranger! spoken used to greet someone who you have not seen for a long time5don’t be a stranger! spoken used when someone is leaving to invite them back to see you soonCOLLOCATIONSadjectivesa complete/perfect/total stranger (=used to emphasize that you do not know the person)· Really, I don't know why I'm revealing all this to a complete stranger.a virtual stranger (=someone you hardly know)· I hadn't seen him for so long that he seemed like a virtual stranger.a passing stranger (=one you pass in the street)· Do not give your camera to a passing stranger and ask him to take a picture of you.a mysterious stranger· She never knew who the mysterious stranger was who had helped her that night.
WORD ORIGINstranger
Origin:
1300-1400 Old French estrangier, from estrange; ➔ STRANGE1EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- After assuming office, he was reluctant to use the existing speech writers because they were strangers to him.
- Carly, don't ever take candy from strangers.
- Many of the farming families have lived here for hundreds of years, and tend to treat everyone else as strangers.
- The boy was a complete stranger to me.
- The people I stayed with were very kind, so I didn't feel like a stranger for long.
- The room was full of strangers.
- Begin by watching yourself for half an hour each day as if you are a stranger.
- Instead we might have been strangers.
- People nudged one another and nodded at this tall stranger, conspicuous in his limp white suit and dark shirt.
- Student volunteers are relying on home hospitality from strangers, supporters who are supplying free rooms for the summer.
- The stranger began a series of intonations, breathing noisily.
- Violence in the home is as much a crime as violence from a stranger, so do not put up with it.
- With no knowledge of the language or people, he is truly a stranger in a strange land.
Longman Language Activatorsomeone you do not know
· The room was full of strangers.be a stranger to somebody · After assuming office, he was reluctant to use the existing speech writers because they were strangers to him.perfect/complete stranger (=use this to emphasize that you do not know someone at all) · The boy was a complete stranger to me.
someone who has just started a new job, school etc someone who is new has only recently arrived in a place, started working in a particular job, or joined an organization: · You're new here, aren't you?· All new employees are given training.new to: · Children who are new to the school may need extra help.· We don't expect you to work as fast as everyone else, while you're still new to the job.new recruit: · Our club membership is flourishing - we've had a huge number of new recruits this year.
someone who has only recently arrived in a place or only recently started a job, sport, or other activity: · The inhabitants of these remote mountain villages tend to be very suspicious of newcomers.· Our team will include some familiar faces as well as a few newcomers.newcomer to: · Although she's a newcomer to the sport, she's already very successful.comparative/relative newcomer (=someone who has arrived or started doing something recently, compared to other people): · I was fifty and a comparative newcomer to computers.
someone who has just arrived in a place, especially in order to live or work there: · Jim, this is our new arrival, Lyndsay. She'll be taking over from Bob.· 1200 new arrivals, including small children and babies, were left sitting on the pavement outside the embassy.the new arrival (=a newly-born baby): · Gwyn's children, Craig and Laura, are thrilled with the new arrival.
someone who has just arrived in a place which they have never been to before, and which they do not know much about: · The people I stayed with were very kind, so I didn't feel like a stranger for long.· Many of the farming families have lived here for hundreds of years, and tend to treat everyone else as strangers.
someone who is fresh from a place of education has only just finished training and is not experienced when they arrive at a new job: fresh from: · You can't expect teachers fresh from college to deal with large classes of difficult children.fresh out of: · We were under the command of a young lieutenant who was fresh out of officer training school.
American someone who has just started doing a job or playing a professional sport, and has little experience: · It was rookie coach, Ray Rhodes, who got the most credit for keeping the team in check.· a rookie cop
British /freshman American a student who has just started at a university or college: · I was eighteen years old and a freshman at Harvard.· a freshers' party· freshers' week
informal someone who is a new user of a technology, especially the Internet: · The program is simple to use, even for newbies.
someone who starts a new job or joins an organization and is likely to make improvements, for example by introducing more modern ideas and methods: · They seem to be expecting everyone over 50 to step aside and make way for new blood.· After its membership halved in the past year, leaving mainly diehard right-wingers behind, the party now desperately needs new blood.
to be used to something difficult or unpleasant · Living so far north, they're used to the very cold winters.be used to doing something · It's a small company, so everyone is used to working late and on weekends.
to have become used to something unpleasant or shocking because you have seen or experienced it many times before: · The relief workers are hardened to the sight of people dying from starvation.be hardened to doing something: · Violence is stressful even to those who are hardened to seeing it every day.
to be used to sad or unpleasant situations because you have experienced them many times before: · Amanda is no stranger to sorrow - both of her parents died this past year.· As a writer he is no stranger to controversy.
to be used to something difficult or unpleasant so that you are able to bear it, because it has happened so much or for so long - used in formal or literary contexts: · Diego looked like a man who was inured to disappointment.· After years in politics, Gramm seems to be inured to criticism.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRYadjectives a complete strangerCOLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADJECTIVE
(=used to emphasize that you do not know the person)· Really, I don't know why I'm revealing all this to a complete stranger.
(=someone you hardly know)· I hadn't seen him for so long that he seemed like a virtual stranger.
(=one you pass in the street)· Do not give your camera to a passing stranger and ask him to take a picture of you.
· She never knew who the mysterious stranger was who had helped her that night.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES a complete stranger· Would you leave him/her with a complete stranger?· They argue with complete strangers a lot.· She was worse than Doreen, telling complete strangers the entire family history.· A nail-biting finish, but finally won by Moira Creek at her first attempt and a complete stranger to Pooh culture.· She'd just walked in to the nearest doorway and spilled the whole thing to a complete stranger.· He was a complete stranger, of no importance to her whatever.· Four Buddhist priests prayed for the royal couple during their visit but they left still looking like complete strangers.· Surely Edward can't have told complete strangers we're on our honeymoon?
· Again he was a person, no longer a perfect stranger.· Some oranges in a commune, like perfect strangers, dwell upon their own navels, untransformed.· A year before he had, but that year had changed him, eliminated the sentiment and made him a perfect stranger.· Asked to stand guard over good or treasure, they would good-naturedly hand everything over to a perfect stranger.· They put money on the table, too, perfect strangers expressing unmistakable monetary interest in the Tonelli Nation.· I was then to ask what people thought about being smiled at by a perfect stranger.· She turned into an expert at coaxing food and lodging invitations out of perfect strangers.
· Have you gone mad, talking of marrying a total stranger - and a foreigner - after five minutes?· When they were admitted, they not only received medical attention, but also love, from total strangers.· Ten days in an alien village with a total stranger and her totally strange family.· The approach was to build one committed team from a group of total strangers.· Honest, to a total stranger he said all that!· To get off a train with a total stranger ... I really can not ... well, words fail me.· He was like a total stranger.
· She'd never been away from home before and her new husband and in-laws were virtual strangers.· He was a virtual stranger to others living in Evesham Court and police still haven't confirmed his identity.· How dared this man, a virtual stranger, stir up these doubts in so private an area of her life?
VERB· Farm workers are apt to complain that they now feel like strangers in their own village.· At times, I begin to feel like a stranger in my own country.· Jack felt like a stranger in his own home.· I have told him many stories, but during the day I often feel we are strangers.· After only a couple of days, comprising mainly insults and bickering, she hadn't felt as if they were strangers.· But love was what he felt for the stranger who'd thrust herself upon him.· He made her feel excluded, a stranger, an intruder into his private world.· One never feels like a stranger or some visiting curiosity.
· She would not let this stranger get near her.· Voice over Once again pensioners are advised not to keep large sums of money at home and not to let in strangers.· She had stubbornly defied both her solicitor and Glyn and here she was letting a complete stranger dictate terms to her.
· The first meeting between these strangers could easily produce a shock that reverberated throughout the marriage.· Mama never met a stranger in her life, although most people thought she was dignified.
· S Teach them the dangers of talking to strangers and not to accept sweets or gifts.· Red learned never to stray from the path or talk to strangers again.· Hatred for the girl who had dared to talk to strangers, who had ruined his plan to get rid of Sikes.· She had trained them to hold hands, walk straight to school and not to talk to strangers.· When I was little, my mom told me not to talk to strangers.· Female speaker Don't talk to strangers.· I was talking to a stranger.
PHRASES FROM THE ENTRY► hello, stranger!► don’t be a stranger!PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
- Derek is no stranger to controversy.
- Andrew himself is no stranger to the big screen and has featured in several commercials.
- B quartet whose self-titled debut has already sold more than a million copies, is no stranger to having hits.
- But Tabitha is no stranger to confrontation.
- Fien is no stranger to Tormey, who recruited him when he was defensive coordinator at Washington.
- His security police are no strangers to intimidation when it comes to striking fear into Ciskei's 850,000 poverty-stricken people.
- Leach was no stranger to Niagara stunts.
- They are no strangers to controversy.
- Toughguy crime novelist Robert B.. Parker is no stranger to the buried life.
- A year before he had, but that year had changed him, eliminated the sentiment and made him a perfect stranger.
- Again he was a person, no longer a perfect stranger.
- Asked to stand guard over good or treasure, they would good-naturedly hand everything over to a perfect stranger.
- I was then to ask what people thought about being smiled at by a perfect stranger.
- She turned into an expert at coaxing food and lodging invitations out of perfect strangers.
- Some oranges in a commune, like perfect strangers, dwell upon their own navels, untransformed.
- They put money on the table, too, perfect strangers expressing unmistakable monetary interest in the Tonelli Nation.
WORD FAMILYnounstrangerstrangenessestrangementadjectivestrangeestrangedadverbstrangely
1someone that you do not know: Children must not talk to strangers.perfect/complete/total stranger (=used to emphasize that you do not know them) Julie finds it easy to speak to complete strangers. ► Do not use stranger to mean ‘a person from another country’. Use foreigner or, more politely, say that someone is from abroad/overseas.2be no stranger to something to have had a lot of a particular kind of experience: a politician who is no stranger to controversy3someone in a new and unfamiliar place: ‘Where’s the station?’ ‘Sorry, I’m a stranger here myself.’4hello, stranger! spoken used to greet someone who you have not seen for a long time5don’t be a stranger! spoken used when someone is leaving to invite them back to see you soonCOLLOCATIONSadjectivesa complete/perfect/total stranger (=used to emphasize that you do not know the person)· Really, I don't know why I'm revealing all this to a complete stranger.a virtual stranger (=someone you hardly know)· I hadn't seen him for so long that he seemed like a virtual stranger.a passing stranger (=one you pass in the street)· Do not give your camera to a passing stranger and ask him to take a picture of you.a mysterious stranger· She never knew who the mysterious stranger was who had helped her that night.