NOVEL • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Novel

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/nˈɑvəl/ Listen

noun

Novel n.

1.

That which is new or unusual; a novelty.

2.

pl. News; fresh tidings. (Obs.) "Some came of curiosity to hear some novels."

3.

A fictitious tale or narrative, longer than a short story, having some degree of complexity and development of characters; it is usually organized as a time sequence of events, and is commonly intended to exhibit the operation of the passions, and often of love.

4.

(Law) A new or supplemental constitution. See the Note under Novel, a.

adjective

Novel adj. Of recent origin or introduction; not ancient; new; hence, out of the ordinary course; unusual; strange; surprising. Note: In civil law, the novel or new constitutions are those which are supplemental to the code, and posterior in time to the other books. These contained new decrees of successive emperors.

Novel assignment (Law), a new assignment or specification of a suit.

Synonyms: New; recent; modern; fresh; strange; uncommon; rare; unusual. Novel, New. Everything at its first occurrence is new; that is novel which is so much out of the ordinary course as to strike us with surprise. That is a new sight which is beheld for the first time; that is a novel sight which either was never seen before or is seen but seldom. We have daily new inventions, but a novel one supposes some very peculiar means of attaining its end. Novel theories are regarded with distrust, as likely to prove more ingenious than sound.

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Etymology of 'Novel'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Novel" Quotes from Famous Books

... imagination. The temptation was certainly great, after describing the rich setting of tropical foliage and flower, to speak at length of the wonderful gem contained within it; but they would in this case have been wise to imitate that modest novel-writer who introduced a blank space on the page where the description of his matchless heroine should have appeared. After all that has been written, the first sight of a living humming-bird, so unlike in its beauty all other beautiful ...

— The Naturalist in La Plata • W. H. Hudson

... Kate. As a matter of fact the great throng and the novel sights were distracting her so much that she found it hard to attend ...

— The Firm of Girdlestone • Arthur Conan Doyle

... scenery of the maritime provinces, Quebec and Ontario, to the far-flung epic of the fenceless prairies and the Homeric grandeur of the mountains. Why are quiet rural beauty and illimitable freedom and lofty splendor not reflected in poem and novel and ballad and picture? The Canadian may answer—We go in more for athletics than aesthetics: we are living literature, not writing it. In our snow-covered prairies edged by the violet mist, lined in silver and pricked at night by the diamond light of a million ...

— The Canadian Commonwealth • Agnes C. Laut

... canoe, and not daring to wander out of sight of their camp-fire when upon shore, there was a delicious relief in rambling through the woods. The clear, pure air that was dry and cool in the shadow of the forest, the undulating, charming scenery, the novel look that rested upon all they saw—these possessed a charm to our young friends which they hardly could have resisted, even if they had the will to do so; but when we say that after starting forth scarcely a thought of their imprudence entered ...

— Adrift in the Wilds - or, The Adventures of Two Shipwrecked Boys • Edward S. Ellis

... ordinary operations of human trade or labor had proved tedious or unproductive—with whom the toils, aims, and impulses of society were deficient of interest; or, upon whom, an inordinate desire of a sudden to acquire wealth had exercised a sufficiently active influence to impel to the novel employment of gold-finding—or rather gold-seeking, for it was not always that the search was successful—the very name of such a pursuit carrying with it to many no small degree of charm and persuasion. To these, a wholesome assortment of other descriptions ...

— Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia • William Gilmore Simms

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