rookie
/ˈɹʊki/
rookie noun: an inexperienced recruit, especially in the police or armed forces.
Noun
rookie (plural rookies)
- An inexperienced recruit, especially in the police or armed forces.
- 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...2026 March 4, Christian Wolmar, “Railtrack: what really happened”, in RAIL, number 1056, page 53
- A novice.
- 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.
- A type of firecracker, used by farmers to scare rooks.
Adjective
rookie (comparative rookier, superlative rookiest)
- Non-professional; amateur
- The game was going well until I made that rookie mistake.
- the rookiest of rookie mistakes
Verb
rookie (third-person singular simple present rookies, present participle rookying, simple past and past participle rookied)
- To be a rookie; to go through one's inexperienced learning period in a job, team, or organization.
- 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.2002, Smokejumpers, page 67
- 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. […]'2009, Jonathan Kellerman, Billy Straight
- To haze one or more rookies as an initiation ritual.
- Great was my surprise when I found that I had been "rookied" in for a policing-up detail with no chance to "allez."1919, Harold C. Bloxham, “Training at La Courtine”, in The History of Battery E, 66th Artillery C. A. C., page 86
- There is none of that 'rookying stuff' but they don't pay any attention to you either, and that is worse.1947, National Association of Secondary School Principals, Bulletin, page 40
rookie meaning in Urdu, Telugu and Kannada
rookie in Urdu
- نیا رنگ روٹ
rookie in Telugu
- రూకీ
rookie in Kannada
- ರೂಕಿ
Examples of rookie in a sentence
- 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.2026 March 4, Christian Wolmar, “Railtrack: what really happened”, in RAIL, number 1056, page 53:
- 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.2016, Bill Loomis, On This Day in Detroit History, page 89:
- Grath and I had joined the Iron Bandits MC the same year; pledged together, rookied together.2019, Heather West, Jax: Iron Bandits MC:
- I was rookied in women's (ice) hockey mid-winter.2002, Celia Brackenridge, Kari Fasting, Sexual Harassment and Abuse in Sport:
Synonyms of rookie
Forms of rookie
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | rookies |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | rookier |
| superlative | rookiest |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | rookies |
| present participle | rookying |
| past participle | rookied |
| past | rookied |
Origin of rookie
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”).
Words formed from rookie
Phrases with rookie
Words that rhyme with rookie
Questions about rookie
- What does rookie mean?
- Rookie means an inexperienced recruit, especially in the police or armed forces.
- What is rookie in Urdu?
- Rookie in Urdu is نیا رنگ روٹ. See Rookie meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use rookie in a sentence?
- 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.
- What part of speech is rookie?
- Rookie can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce rookie?
- Rookie is pronounced /ˈɹʊki/.
- What is the plural of rookie?
- The plural of rookie is rookies.
Words near rookie in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: rookie (page history and authors); rookie (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rookie (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rookie (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-rookie.wav.
Cite this entry: “rookie.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rookie. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.