rookie
/ˈɹʊki/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.13 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An inexperienced recruit, especially in the police or armed forces.
noun
A novice.
noun
An athlete either new to the sport or to a team or in his/her first year of professional competition, especially said of baseball, basketball, hockey and American football players.
adj
verb
To be a rookie; to go through one's inexperienced learning period in a job, team, or organization.
Intransitive verb
Example Sentences
- "Corbett is convinced it was a systemic failure: "The Thames Train was driven by a rookie driver who had only just come into the job. It is, in fact, difficult to run through a red light, because you have to cancel the Automatic Warning System (AWS) and so on. But he continued for 700 yards and he accelerated, which no one understands why."
- "The game was going well until I made that rookie mistake."
- "the rookiest of rookie mistakes"
- "In 1977 he rookied as a smokejumper with the International Forest Fire Systems, a private firm that contracted smokejumping services to Canada's Northwest Territories."
- "As they go ton the stretch of road that ran between the park and the 5 Freeway, Stu said 'Schoelkopf gave me the kind of lecture I haven't heard since I rookied. […]'"
- "He rookied in 1980 and settled in to play right field for the Detroit Tigers from 1983 to 1987 and was critical to the Tigers winning the 1984 World Series against the San Diego Padres."
Etymology
Thought to be an alteration of recruit + -ie, or from rook (“a cheat”) + -ie. Another possible origin is Dutch broekie (short for broekvent (“a boy still in short trousers”)), a common term for a shipmate. Also suggested is Irish rúca (“an inexperienced person”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
- British usage
- Intransitive verb
- Transitive verb