rookies

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of rookie.

   The coaching staff paired veterans with rookies to speed up their development.

   Two rookies made the starting lineup ahead of more experienced players.

   Note

   A regular plural that covers several kinds of newcomer: recruits in the police or armed forces, novices in any trade, and first-year players, especially in baseball, basketball, hockey and American football. In British use the same spelling can also mean firecrackers that farmers set off to scare rooks. That sense has nothing to do with beginners, so only context tells the two apart.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of rookie.

   Note

   Two constructions share this form. Without an object it means serving one's first, inexperienced stretch, as in she rookies with the team that drafted her. With an object it means hazing newcomers as an initiation. The object is the test. Because the spelling matches the plural noun exactly, the sentence's grammar, not the word, shows which one you have.

   Every spring the captain rookies the new arrivals before their first road trip.

   The squad still rookies its youngest members, despite the league's ban on hazing.

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