newbie /n[y]oobee/ , n. A new user of some system. This term surfaced in the Usenet newsgroup talk.bizarre but is now in wide use (the combination clueless newbie is especially common). Criteria for being considered a newbie vary wildly; a person can be called a newbie in one newsgroup while remaining a respected regular in another. The label newbie is sometimes applied as a serious insult to a person who has been around Usenet for a long time but who carefully hides all evidence of having a clue. See B1FF; see also gnubie. Compare chainik.