DCHP-1 Online

import Slang

• 1a n. a player who is brought in from elsewhere to play for a team representing a town, company, etc.; a player who is not a native or product of the area his team represents.

  • 1949  "Be glad to see more of the employees on the [softball] team . . .' Stead of all these imports."
  • 1955  Taking item by item it was agreed that the senior 'A' group be classed as open league, which would allow the use of imports and paid playing coaches.
  • 1958  Imports are adding color to soccer in Canada just as they did for football.
  • 1962  One of the greatest of all the imports was Bill Cowley, a smoothie from Ottawa.

• 1b n. any competitor who is not native to the area in which he is competing.

  • 1958  Up to now the Edmonton drivers, long acclaimed the best in Canada, have proven patsies for the United States imports who have come up for the past two stock car races at Speedway Park.

• 2 n. Cdn Football a non-Canadian professional player (in practice, an American) who has not played for five years in Canada.

  See also: homebrew (def. 1a)  non-import  

  • 1958  It is understood he may receive his citizenship papers this year and not be classed as an import on Stamp's roster.
  • 1964  . . . the group . . . favors limiting each team to a certain number of imports who have gained Canadian status through five year residence.
  • 1966  If he had known two years ago what he knows now, Atamian would be playing as a Canadian for Ottawa Rough Riders, not as an import for Argos.

• 3 n. a company that is non-Canadian.

  • 1955  When Simpson-Sears was called an import firm, Eaton's became Eaton's of Canada.