Stranger, n.
Etymology: [OF. estrangier, F. étranger. See Strange.]
1. One who is strange, foreign, or unknown. Specifically: -- (a) One who comes from a foreign land; a foreigner. I am a most poor woman and a stranger, Born out of your dominions. Shak.
(b) One whose home is at a distance from the place where he is, but in the same country. (c) One who is unknown or unacquainted; as, the gentleman is a stranger to me; hence, one not admitted to communication, fellowship, or acquaintance. Melons on beds of ice are taught to bear, And strangers to the sun yet ripen here. Granville. My child is yet a stranger in the world. Shak. I was no stranger to the original. Dryden.
2. One not belonging to the family or household; a guest; a visitor. To honor and receive Our heavenly stranger. Milton.
3. (Law)
1 more senses
One not privy or party an act, contract, or title; a mere intruder or intermeddler; one who interferes without right; as, actual possession of land gives a good title against a stranger having no title; as to strangers, a mortgage is considered merely as a pledge; a mere stranger to the levy.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Stranger, v. t.
To estrange; to alienate. [Obs.] Shak.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for stranger; he lists it under alien.
Where he writes about it:
A naturalized citizen is not an alien, though a foreigner by birth, and perhaps a stranger in the place where he resides. — from alien
A person of foreign birth not naturalized is an alien, though he may have been resident in the country a large part of a lifetime, and ceased to be a stranger to its people or institutions. — from alien