Johnny-come-lately

Related to Johnny-come-lately: clarification, arrivederci, designation, sundries

Johnny-come-lately

A newcomer or late arrival to a group or activity. The rest of the staff wasn't too fond of Greg, a Johnny-come-lately who received praise from the manager after just one week on the job. Hurry up, Johnny-come-lately, we've already started today's drills!
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

Johnny-come-lately

A newcomer, as in She may be a Johnny-come-lately on the board, but she's doing a fine job with publicity. [1830s]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

Johnny-come-lately

OLD-FASHIONED
You call someone a Johnny-come-lately if they get involved in an activity or organization when it has been happening or has existed for a long time and therefore have little knowledge or experience of it. Having arrived on the scene relatively recently, Sylva is regarded by many other managers as a Johnny-come-lately. Note: Johnny-come-lately can also be used before a noun. We advise members to ensure that they are dealing with a reliable and long-established company — not some Johnny-come-lately firm that's just set up round the corner. Note: This name used to be given to new or inexperienced sailors in the American navy.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

Johnnie-come-lately

and JCL
n. someone new to a situation or status. This Johnnie-come-lately doesn’t know what it was like in the old days.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

Johnny-come-lately

A late arrival; a newcomer. This term originated in the early nineteenth-century British navy as Johnny Newcomer, meaning a seaman new to a ship. In the United States it was changed to Johnny-come-lately, first appearing in print in Charles F. Briggs’s novel, The Adventures of Harry Franco (1839).
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • Johnnie-come-lately
  • lately
  • JCL
  • be fond of (someone or something)
  • fond
  • fond of
  • fond of (someone or something)
  • horny
  • like one of the family
  • the silent majority
References in periodicals archive
"Samsung is not some copyist, some Johnny-come-lately doing knockoffs," he told the seven men and two women jurors.
Apple v Samsung - the big fight gets going
This is how you understand the ancestry of land; and you, interloper, Johnny-Come-Lately, you must learn the rituals of centuries of claiming what was not their own, centuries of turning the earth into the basic trace of memory, the purchase of a dream.
Land
And Rick Santorum, who needs to attack whenever he can lest he become an official also-ran, chastised Perry as a Johnny-come-lately on Israel.
Israel Heats Up as GOP Primary Issue
"I had always figured I was a kind of a Johnny-come-lately who had tumbled into the entertainment business by accident, when in fact I was probably at least part-way genetically programmed to be in it.
Lion and the Lamb; PRIDE OVER FAMILY TREE FOR LARRY
ONE of Birmingham's newest MPs has been accused of being a "hypocritical Johnny-come-lately" over his campaign against post office closures.
Dromey attacked over post office campaign
*When it comes to flying, though, the birds have been doing it for so long they can be excused a little scorn at the efforts of human beings and their johnny-come-lately attitude.
Pure freedom of m man, motor and skies; William Leece looks at the latest Daily Post Flickr pictures
When this Johnny-come-Lately returns home and gives his poor daughter that injured puppy look when she asks him "How did it go, dad?", I come close to punching walls in blind rage.
In a furious trance at Lately ad; PALMER'S TV BELCH
Being a Johnny-Come-Lately has not stopped the 1972 album becoming part of my cultural heritage.
Exile still rips the joint... but the greatest Stones album?
"We're not johnny-come-lately with a big bag of money saying, 'Let me kick the door down.' Having cars turn left for 3-1/2 hours isn't the same as running a casino."
Howdy neighbor
He operated under licence but the city reckoned he spoiled the look of the place, didn't fit in with the Johnny-come-lately stores - so out he went.
I don't buy ban bid for street traders
The real fans, the working class, are now fast going the way of the dodo and being replaced by the Johnny-come-lately middle classes who can afford inflated prices.
Sports Letter: Fans hit by greed
"The President is not a Johnny-come-lately sportsman and clearly understands the importance of active management to ensure healthy wildlife populations," Painter said.
President Bush meets with industry leaders, sportsman groups
"Combinatorics is the Johnny-come-lately of mathematics, and mathematicians don't treat it with the respect they give to geometry or number theory," he says.
Glimpses of genius: mathematicians and historians piece together a puzzle that Archimedes pondered
The Johnny-come-lately niche publishers get the ink.
The pequeno papers
Johnny-come-lately vulgarity debases RR pedigree, but still an immensely uplifting carriage.
MOTORS: Give us a steer