Meanings of mere beginner in English

We could not put our lives in the hands of a mere beginner.

Why, Rousseau's Julie, whom I thought so learned, is a mere beginner to you.

A mere beginner like myself, to question his methods in dealing with the Cold Plague!

You are evidently a mere beginner.

I have had much to learn to keep the soldiers from observing that I was a mere beginner in the art of war.

Spicca parried as easily and carelessly as though the prince had been a mere beginner, and allowed the latter to recover himself before he replied.

That might have been beautifully and properly done, if he had not had mere beginners before him.

Their sculptors are characterized by Flaxman as " mere beginners," or "laborious mechanics;" their works as "lifeless forms, menial vehicles of an idea."