1A person new to or inexperienced in a field or situation.

1. 1.1 A person who has entered a religious order and is under probation, before taking vows.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • Whether novice monks will result from that I don't really know.
   • Is there a potential that there will be some novice monks among them?
   • At present an average 220 monks and novices live within the temple compound.
   • One confessor ordered Veronica Giuliani to kneel while a novice of the order kicked her in the mouth.
   • Similarly, a young novice entered St. Martin's cell and was puzzled not to find him there.
   • In ten short years, several historic monasteries and convents have been restored to the Orthodox church and have welcomed hundreds of young novices.
   • Maana's wife went to the temple to give alms daily, serving breakfasts and lunches to her son, other novices and monks, until her son was disrobed.
   • He was an officer in the Irish Guards before becoming a novice monk in the Benedictine Order in 1955.
   • Still very active at sixty years old, she was sent to the motherhouse to oversee the novices ' manual work.
   • So there are hundreds or even thousands of postulants, novices, seminarians, active priests, and retired priests who live, work, or hang out at American seminaries.
   • His dilemma is crystallised by his " irregular fondness " for two fellow novices.
   • How many monks and nuns, or novices, would you say?
   • The deportment of Buddhist monks and novices is governed by many exacting rules, and phenomenological accounts of this celibate, contemplative way of life are available in a number of texts.
   • Galileo had a mixed education, starting at a monastery school in Vallombrosa where he entered the order as a novice, against the wishes of his father.
   • These words from Jeremiah were engraved on a plaque on our dormitory wall when I was a novice with Mother Teresa in Calcutta.
   • Both were described in the future tense since both took place in the context of the Eucharist, of which the novice had no direct experience.
   • The opening programme has a brief section in which the novices question a monk on celibacy but, at the risk of the sin of prurience, I wanted to know more about the dynamics of living in a community of men.
   • The area under claim amounted to a sacred precinct as most of the acreage was associated with initiation rites, the storage of sacred objects, and the activities of religious tutors and novices.
   • He joined the monastic order as a novice, and studied the Hua-yen ching with Chih-yen.
   • A friend who is a novice in an Episcopal religious order recently told me that she has no taste now for books of contemporary spirituality.

   Synonyms

   novitiate, postulant, proselyte, catechumen, neophyte
2. 1.2 An animal, especially a racehorse, that has not yet won a major prize or reached a level of performance to qualify for important events.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • He was a decent novice hurdler, who took to fences really well, initially.
   • Cornish Rebel made a successful start to his chasing career with victory in a novice chase at Lingfield.
   • He only went down by half a length in a seven-furlong novice event and may well have won had he known more about the racing game.
   • Captain Christy, ridden by Bobby Beasley, remains the last novice to have won chasing's blue riband event.
   • Lord Sam, one of last season's top novices, made several jumping errors before finally dumping jockey Jim Culloty at a fence on the back straight.
   • Apparently the horse jumped particularly well and his trainer expects him to make a big impression in novice chases.
   • But that was before the Queen's horse, Shining Strand, won a novice hurdle race at Wetherby.
   • The gelding's new trainer may try to capitalise on Captain Corelli's novice hurdle status before reverting to chases.
   • Only seven, he was one of the better novice chasers last season but there is hopefully a lot more improvement to come.
   • Today's Royal Bond Hurdle will go a long way towards sorting out the pecking order of the Cheltenham-bound novices and two further pieces in the jigsaw should be provided at Navan next month.
   • He ended last season by winning the Scottish Champion Hurdle, then injured himself in his first novice chase.
   • A useful novice chaser two seasons ago, the Ferdy Murphy-trained gelding showed all of his old sparkle as he took the spoils.
   • I may not have been a winner but at least I had completed the novice hurdle.
   • And there was some consolation for the connections of Limestone Lad when Solerina won the novice hurdle.
   • It was only fitting that there should be a female winner on Ladies Day and trainer Venetia Williams obliged when Limerick Boy won the novices' hurdle handicap.
   • There is nothing to stop novices running in normal hurdles or chases.
   • Watch for an Irish outsider in the supreme novice hurdle and an Irish winner of the Coral Cup.
   • Culloty sustained the injury when falling from Only Vintage at the fourth flight in a novices' hurdle at the same course on Tuesday.
   • Karanja has what it takes to make a high-class novice over hurdles this season and, with Andrew Thornton in the saddle, he can begin this new phase of his career on a high note.