greenhorn
an untrained or inexperienced person.
a naive or gullible person; someone who is easily tricked or swindled.
Slang. a newly arrived immigrant; newcomer.
Origin of greenhorn
1Other words from greenhorn
- greenhornism, noun
Words Nearby greenhorn
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use greenhorn in a sentence
This may well be the founding principle of environmentalism, dating back to Theodore Roosevelt’s hunting expeditions and John Muir’s establishing of the Sierra Club with its excursions for greenhorns.
We’d just completed our training on the principles of Leave No Trace and would soon be guiding across these waters our own rafts of greenhorns, who would invariably ask what to do with their own banana peels.
For the non-greenhorn, though, there is fun to be had in the smattering of fearless, at times audacious, assertions.
John Sutherland‘s Enjoyable Little History of Literature | Malcolm Forbes | November 29, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTOf course it was a pretty greenhorn trick, but I guess no harm will come of it.
Riders of the Silences | John FrederickI'll learn you to leave junk in my way, you greenhorn squirt!
The Planet Strappers | Raymond Zinke Gallun
The Greek mill-hand sells the greenhorn a job, and takes his chances on the foreman giving the man work.
The Old World in the New | Edward Alsworth RossShe, on her side, perceiving what a greenhorn she had to deal with, made up her shrewd little mind to set her cap for me.
The Wasted Generation | Owen JohnsonAn old trapper who has a couple of traps and lots of experience will catch more fur than the greenhorn with a complete outfit.
Deadfalls and Snares | A. R. (Arthur Robert) Harding
British Dictionary definitions for greenhorn
/ (ˈɡriːnˌhɔːn) /
an inexperienced person, esp one who is extremely gullible
mainly US a newcomer or immigrant
Origin of greenhorn
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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