fresh off the boat

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Recently arrived from a foreign country, often naive about local customs.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Mới đến từ nước ngoài, thường thiếu hiểu biết về phong tục địa phương

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: newly arrived by ship
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The tourist got lost because he was fresh off the boat.

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “fresh off the boat” mean?

Recently arrived from a foreign country, often naive about local customs. Literally: newly arrived by ship

Is “fresh off the boat” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.