Nov″ice (?), n. [F., from L. novicius, novitius, new, from novus new. See New, and cf. Novitious.]
1. One who is new in any business, profession, or calling; one unacquainted or unskilled; one yet in the rudiments; a beginner; a tyro.
I am young; a novice in the trade. Dryden.
2. One newly received into the church, or one newly converted to the Christian faith. 1 Tim. iii. 6.
3. (Eccl.) One who enters a religious house, whether of monks or nuns, as a probationist. Shipley.
No poore cloisterer, nor no novys. Chaucer.