noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A newcomer; a novice; an upstart. also, attributive, idiomatic

   "She might take offense if some Johnny-come-lately thinks he can do a better job."

2. 2
   Alternative form of Johnny-come-lately. alt-of, alternative

Synonyms

All synonyms

abecedarianalphabetarianamateurapprenticebeginnerblow-in

Antonyms

All antonyms

maven

Example

More examples

"She might take offense if some Johnny-come-lately thinks he can do a better job."

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.