novels

Noun (1)

novel (plural novels)

1. A work of prose fiction, longer than a novella.
   • If it be true, that the preſent age is more corrupt, than the preceding, the great multiplication of Novels has probably contributed to its degeneracy. Fifty years ago there was ſcarcely a Novel in the kingdom. Romances, indeed, abounded; but they, it is ſuppoſed, were rather favorable to virtue.1800, Vicesimus Knox, “Essay XIV (On Novel reading)”, in Essays Moral and Literary, volume I, page 100
2. (historical) A fable; a short tale, especially one of many making up a larger work.
   • merry tales[…]such as the old woman told of Psyche in Apuleius, Boccace novels, and the rest, quarum auditione pueri delectantur, senes narratione, which some delight to hear, some to tell, all are well pleased with.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section...

Noun (2)

novel (plural novels)

1. (obsolete) A novelty; something new.
   • Libum is a cake made of Honey (sugar is a nouvelle, since the discovery of America), meale and oyle.1687, John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, page 7

Noun (3)

novel (plural novels)

1. (Byzantine, Roman, historical) A new legal constitution.
   • The normal and natural relationship of emperor and churchman was summed up by Justinian in one of his novels […]1979, Jeffrey Richards, The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages, 476–752, page 15

See all 6 meanings of novel