off the boat

fresh off the boat

Newly immigrated, especially without having yet assimilated the host country's language, culture, and/or behavior. My grandfather was still fresh off the boat when he opened up his business here in 1820, and he didn't speak a lick of English.
See also: boat, fresh, off
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

off the boat

recently arrived from a foreign country, and by implication naive or an outsider. informal, often offensive
See also: boat, off
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • fresh off the boat
  • just off the boat
  • hold the reins
  • fit in
  • fit in(to)
  • (there's) no fool like an old fool
  • assimilate
  • assimilate (oneself/someone/something) into
  • assimilate into
  • horse opera
References in periodicals archive
When a fan congratulated her on Fresh Off The Boat's renewal, describing it as "great news", Constance replied: "No it's not."
New episodes of "Fresh Off the Boat" and "Speechless" start up again on ABC on Nov.
Last night's episode of Fresh Off the Boat addressed this commonality head-on: Eddie's school finally gets a second Chinese-American kid, and everyone assumes they'll be best buds simply because of their shared genetic material.
By contrast, one of the funniest bits in "Fresh Off the Boat" comes in a later episode when Eddie brings home a terrific report card, and his mother marches into the principal's office, complaining that his classes must be too easy.
Sources revealed that the 'High School Musical' star and the 'Fast and Furious' actress were spotted holding hands while sunbathing and later swam and backflipped off the boat.
Sail along the glittering coastline of Croatia, leap off the boat into crystalline waters and choose from a host of adventure activities including a bike safari, rafting and diving.
"I knew if I didn't get off the boat I was going to be on it for much longer than I wanted to be.
I don't think Tony Blair has any impact on what happens in the Middle East" Jeremy Bowen, below, the BBC's Middle East editor on the former Prime Minister's role as an envoy in the region "Get the barnacles off the boat" Tory electoral strategist Lynton Crosby's advice to the Prime Minister to dump controversial policies in the run-up to the election "It is a day of shame for this Government.
One Nigerian was ordered off the boat and returned to the construction site, a South Korean foreign ministry official said.
The only decision you have to take is to jump off the boat into the water with an instructor, dive gear and an underwater camera in hand!
Each turn required me to hold on for dear life in case I would go flying off the boat, luckily I didn't.
He's proposed that some of the 11,277 apartments in Stuyvesant Town, one of Manhattan's nicer areas, should be given to Irish immigrants fresh off the boat.
None of the four men fell off the boat after the collision and the U.S.
ON HITTING A SHARK MID-RACE: "IT WAS A GODSEND IN THE END BECAUSE THE SECOND WE GOT HIM OFF THE BOAT WAS BACK TO IT SOLD SELF."
We kitted up and back-rolled off the boat, descending to swim over the coral, cameras in hand.