Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use rookie in a sentence

33 example sentences · noun, adjective, verb

Rookie means an inexperienced recruit, especially in the police or armed forces. Example: “The game was going well until I made that rookie mistake.”

Examples of rookie by meaning

nounAn 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.2026 March 4, Christian Wolmar, “Railtrack: what really happened”, in RAIL, number 1056, page 53

adjectiveNon-professional; amateur.

  • The game was going well until I made that rookie mistake.
  • the rookiest of rookie mistakes

verbTo 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
  • 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

verbTo 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
  • I was rookied in women's (ice) hockey mid-winter.2002, Celia Brackenridge, Kari Fasting, Sexual Harassment and Abuse in Sport

More sentences with rookie

  • I don't believe I have to nursemaid these two rookies through their entire probationary period.From the entry nursemaid
  • The rookie was upset at being called Lemon Drop until she realized that everyone on the team had a silly moniker.From the entry moniker
  • The rookie was a surprising top seed.From the entry seed
  • One reason the rookies weren't catching too many was that Bradshaw was throwing laser beams.2013, Roy Blount Jr., About Three Bricks Shy...And the Load Filled Up, Ballantine Books, →ISBN. From the entry laser beam
  • When these two rookies eventually came under fire he wondered which one would fill his pants first.2010, Robert Richardson, Java Bond, →ISBN, page 34. From the entry fill one's pants
  • And then there were several instances when The Intimidator nudged rookies Ron Hornaday and Kurt Busch.2001, Triumph, Dale Earnhardt: Remembering the Intimidator, Triumph Books, →ISBN, page 37. From the entry trade paint
  • I think all of you are right, this rookie guy's a jerk.1999 July 22, jason beveridge, “Too all morans out there (Purple jeuses)”, in alt.alcohol (Usenet). From the entry rufie
  • The rookie outfielder was waved out before he reached the plate.1983 September 26, J. D. Reed, “Can Anyone Win This Thing?”, in Time. From the entry judgment call
  • New York Jets rookie tight end Kenyon Sadiq is going to miss some time after having hernia surgery.2026 May 29, Paul Esden Jr., “Jets Receive ‘Bad News’ on Injured Rookie Kenyon Sadiq”, in Heavy. From the entry Kenyon
  • “It was a rookie mistake back then.2023, Briana Michaels, chapter 10, in Click, Independantly published, →ISBN. From the entry dom drop
  • Compared to Bezos, Zoom's insider dumps are rookie numbers.2020 September 28, David Canellis, “Zoom execs dumped $580M of stock as its share price rose 622%”, in TNW. From the entry rookie numbers
  • A day or two later we took down another seller and this time the rookie performs the search.2002, James Harper Walker, Inside Your Local Police. From the entry assume the position
  • "If you want somebody to play the angles," the frustrated rookie replied, "why don't you hire a pool player?"1996, Robert W. Creamer, Stengel: His Life and Times, →ISBN, page 43. From the entry play the angles
  • "But as a rookie I felt like the designated shushee, the rube whose clacking machine would be banned at any moment."1990, Bud Collins, My Life with the Pros - Page 86. From the entry shushee
  • The finals for the men's black belt championship saw Moon, an old pro, face an upcoming young rookie, Johnny Wooley.1967 August, “U.S. Karate Championships”, in Black Belt, Active Interest Media, →ISSN, page 51. From the entry upcoming
  • Those are rookie numbers to Dracula.2022 October 23, Tony Sokol, “Dracula Stands Above All Other Vampires and Horror Icons”, in Den of Geek. From the entry rookie numbers
  • Bryant’s path to becoming a champion, after all, began with a series of infamous misses: his playoff airballs as a rookie against Utah.2021 April 13, Bill Oram, “Remembering Kobe Bryant’s final game: Five years later, five untold stories about the Lakers legend’s 60-point…. From the entry airball
  • Slap that MERKLES HAPPEN bumper sticker on your shiny new Model T and praise the Lord some dumb nineteen-year-old rookie misran the bases.2018, David Arnold, The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik. From the entry misrun
  • Sabean insisted he kept Posey at Triple A because the front office wasn't convinced the rookie could excel behind the plate in the big leagues.2015, Andrew Baggarly, Duane Kuiper, A Band of Misfits: Tales of the 2010 San Francisco Giants, →ISBN, page 12. From the entry front office
  • Addie was a star ball player and a student of the sport, but as a sports writer he was a yannigan, a rookie.2014, Addie Joss, Gary Mitchem, Addie Joss on Baseball, page XII. From the entry yannigan
  • His boss assigned him to show the Martensville rookie how to interview them too, in the Soft Room at the Saskatoon police station.1997 November, Frann Harris, “The Prosecution”, in Martensville: Truth Or Justice?: The Story of the Martensville Daycare Trials, Dundurn…. From the entry soft room
  • Rookie policemen, apuff with zeal and a conviction anybody they arrested should get the book as an incorrigible miscreant, sometimes yiped loud and long about the judge's leniency.1966, United States. Congress, Congressional Record. From the entry apuff
  • The only reliever who has yet to drive into a rut is the 28-year-old rookie Peter Moylan, a submarining right-hander from Australia with swirling tattoos on his thick right arm.2007 August 6, Ray Glier, “Braves Feel Good About New Faces, and So Do Fans”, in New York Times. From the entry submarining
  • After finding both stairwells untenable at the roof, the Captain and the rookie take the window‐washing scaffold—any port in a storm—down the side of the building to the fire floor.1974 January 27, Dennis Smith, “Playing with fire can mean getting burned [review of Firehouse]”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.…. From the entry any port in a storm

Meaning of rookie

  1. noun An inexperienced recruit, especially in the police or armed forces.
  2. noun A novice.
  3. 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.

Full definition of rookie

Questions about rookie in a sentence

How do you use rookie in a sentence?
Rookie is used as a noun, adjective and verb. For example: “The game was going well until I made that rookie mistake.”
What is a short sentence with rookie?
“the rookiest of rookie mistakes”
What does rookie mean?
Rookie means an inexperienced recruit, especially in the police or armed forces.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rookie (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use rookie in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/rookie. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.