raw recruit
Brand-new military trainee
A raw recruit is someone newly enlisted or hired who lacks training and experience.
The phrase emphasizes complete inexperience—raw suggesting unprocessed or unrefined, not yet shaped by discipline or practice: The sergeant had three weeks to turn raw recruits into soldiers.
The term appears most often in military contexts but applies to any field.
- noviceInexperienced newcomer to field
- rookieInexperienced newcomer
- greenhornInexperienced, gullible newcomer
- beginnerOne who lacks experience
- brand newCompletely unused, just acquired
first day · trainee · fresh face · cadet · newbie · fresh · new blood · untested · green · learning the ropes · boot camp · drill · uniform · enlistment · military service · infantry · basic training · private
- beginnersbeginner, novice, rookie, newbie, newcomer
- newcomersnewcomers, newcomer, new arrivals, new arrival, newbie
- novicesnovice, beginner, rookie, newbie, greenhorn
- military traineescadet, midshipman, plebe, draftee, conscript
- recruitsdraftee, conscript, inductee, enlistee, selectee
- naivetygreenhorn, newbie, tenderfoot, born yesterday, green as grass
raw recruitveteran
Experienced former soldier
seasoned veteran · old hand · career soldier · decorated veteran · combat veteran
raw, rawly, rawness, recruit, recruits, recruited, recruiting, recruitment, recruiter