rookie numbers

English

Etymology

A reference to Matthew McConaughey's character Mark Hanna in the 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street, who advises protagonist Jordan Belfort to masturbate more frequently: "You gotta pump those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers in this racket."

Noun

rookie numbers pl (plural only)

1. (slang, humorous) Low numbers or a small amount of something, especially seen as signaling one's inexperience or naïveté.
   • 2020 September 28, David Canellis, “Zoom execs dumped $580M of stock as its share price rose 622%”, in TNW‎^[1]:

     Compared to Bezos, Zoom's insider dumps are rookie numbers.

   • 2022 September 21, Brenden Morrow, “The daily gossip: Tom Hardy won a Jiu-Jitsu competition, Shakira is in the 'darkest hour of my life,' and more”, in The Week‎^[2]:

     Garfield recently discussed how he got into character as a Jesuit priest for the movie Silence by being celibate for half a year. But Barrymore's reaction? Those are rookie numbers!

   • 2022 October 23, Tony Sokol, “Dracula Stands Above All Other Vampires and Horror Icons”, in Den of Geek‎^[3]:

     As the protector of Wallachia and Transylvania, [Vlad Dracula] was a far more bloodthirsty ruler than the infamous Queen Mary I, Mary Tudor, also known as Bloody Mary; she burned 280 religious dissenters at the stake during her reign. Those are rookie numbers to Dracula.