NOVEL • FREE-TRANSLATOR.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

... Vallejo and Dupont streets. Ricardo had but one eye but he could see the wants of his patrons much better than many of the later day waiters who have two. Luna's brought fame to San Francisco and in more than one novel of San Francisco life it was featured. Entering the place one came into the home life of the Luna family, and reached the dining room through the parlor, where Mrs. Luna, busy with her drawn work, and all the little ...

— Bohemian San Francisco - Its restaurants and their most famous recipes--The elegant art of dining. • Clarence E. Edwords

... has, however, disclosed a claim of jurisdiction by Mexico novel in our history, whereby any offense committed anywhere by a foreigner, penal in the place of its commission, and of which a Mexican is the object, may, if the offender be found in Mexico, be there tried and punished in conformity with ...

— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... it from two receivers by direct steam pressure but also for some sort of reciprocating piston actuating one end of a lever, the other operating a pump. His descriptions are rather obscure and no drawings are extant so that it is difficult to say whether there were any distinctly novel features to his devices aside from the double action. While there is no direct authentic record that any of the devices he described were actually constructed, it is claimed by many that he really built and operated ...

— Steam, Its Generation and Use • Babcock & Wilcox Co.

... discovered that all the harm they did was to wet her pretty head and drench her boxes, and when, moreover, she satisfied herself by a chance glance or two at my face that there was nothing to fear, she began to enjoy the novel experience, and even laughed to see how the ...

— Kilgorman - A Story of Ireland in 1798 • Talbot Baines Reed

... appetite for "made dishes" was quite taken away. The excellent lady whom he afterward married was one of the guests, and among the gentlemen present I remember the brilliant author of "The Bachelor of the Albany," a book that was then the Novel sensation in London. Forster flew from one topic to another with admirable skill, and entertained us with anecdotes of Wellington and Rogers, gilding the time with capital imitations of his celebrated contemporaries in literature and on the stage. A touch about Edmund Kean made ...

— Yesterdays with Authors • James T. Fields

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