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foreign mission

 - 4 dictionary results

foreign mission

–noun
1. mission (def. 6).
2. mission (def. 3).

Origin:
1800–10

mis⋅sion

[mish-uhn]
–noun
1. a group or committee of persons sent to a foreign country to conduct negotiations, establish relations, provide scientific and technical assistance, or the like.
2. the business with which such a group is charged.
3. a permanent diplomatic establishment abroad; embassy; legation.
4. Military. an operational task, usually assigned by a higher headquarters: a mission to bomb the bridge.
5. Aerospace. an operation designed to carry out the goals of a specific program: a space mission.
6. a group of persons sent by a church to carry on religious work, esp. evangelization in foreign lands, and often to establish schools, hospitals, etc.
7. an establishment of missionaries in a foreign land; a missionary church or station.
8. a similar establishment in any region.
9. the district assigned to a missionary.
10. missionary duty or work.
11. an organization for carrying on missionary work.
12. Also called rescue mission. a shelter operated by a church or other organization offering food, lodging, and other assistance to needy persons.
13. missions, organized missionary work or activities in any country or region.
14. a church or a region dependent on a larger church or denomination.
15. a series of special religious services for increasing religious devotion and converting unbelievers: to preach a mission.
16. an assigned or self-imposed duty or task; calling; vocation.
17. a sending or being sent for some duty or purpose.
18. those sent.
–adjective
19. of or pertaining to a mission.
20. (usually initial capital letter) noting or pertaining to a style of American furniture of the early 20th century, created in supposed imitation of the furnishings of the Spanish missions of California and characterized by the use of dark, stained wood, by heaviness, and by extreme plainness.
Also called foreign mission (for defs. 3, 6).


Origin:
1590–1600; 1925–30 for def. 4; < L missiōn- (s. of missiō) a sending off, equiv. to miss(us) (ptp. of mittere to send) + -iōn- -ion


mis⋅sion⋅al, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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foreign mission  
n.  
  1. A permanent diplomatic legation established in a foreign country.

  2. A religious group especially of Christians sent to a foreign country for missionary service.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

mission 
1598, originally of Jesuits sending members abroad, from L. missionem (nom. missio) "act of sending," from mittere "to send," oldest form probably *smittere, of unknown origin. Diplomatic sense of "body of persons sent to a foreign land on commercial or political business" is from 1626. In Amer.Eng., sometimes "an embassy" (1805). Meaning "dispatch of an aircraft on a military operation" (1929, Amer.Eng.) later extended to spacecraft flights (1962), hence, mission control (1964). As a style of furniture, said to be imitative of furniture of original Sp. missions to N.America, it is attested from 1900.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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