The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Novel \Nov"el\, n. [F. nouvelle. See Novel, a.]
   1. That which is new or unusual; a novelty.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. pl. News; fresh tidings. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            Some came of curiosity to hear some novels.
                                                  --Latimer.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. A fictitious tale or narrative, longer than a short story,
      having some degree of complexity and development of
      characters; it is usually organized as a time sequence of
      events, and is commonly intended to exhibit the operation
      of the passions, and often of love. --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster +PJC]

   4. [L. novellae (sc. constitutiones): cf. F. novelles.] (Law)
      A new or supplemental constitution. See the Note under
      Novel, a.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Novel \Nov"el\, a. [OF. novel, nuvel, F. nouvel, nouveau, L.
   novellus, dim. of novus new. See New.]
   Of recent origin or introduction; not ancient; new; hence,
   out of the ordinary course; unusual; strange; surprising.
   [1913 Webster]

   Note: In civil law, the novel or new constitutions are those
         which are supplemental to the code, and posterior in
         time to the other books. These contained new decrees of
         successive emperors.
         [1913 Webster]

   Novel assignment (Law), a new assignment or specification
      of a suit.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: New; recent; modern; fresh; strange; uncommon; rare;
        unusual.

   Usage: Novel, New . Everything at its first occurrence is
          new; that is novel which is so much out of the
          ordinary course as to strike us with surprise. That is
          a new sight which is beheld for the first time; that
          is a novel sight which either was never seen before or
          is seen but seldom. We have daily new inventions, but
          a novel one supposes some very peculiar means of
          attaining its end. Novel theories are regarded with
          distrust, as likely to prove more ingenious than
          sound.
          [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

novel
    adj 1: original and of a kind not seen before; "the computer
           produced a completely novel proof of a well-known
           theorem" [syn: fresh, new, novel]
    2: pleasantly new or different; "common sense of a most
       refreshing sort" [syn: novel, refreshing]
    n 1: an extended fictional work in prose; usually in the form of
         a story
    2: a printed and bound book that is an extended work of fiction;
       "his bookcases were filled with nothing but novels"; "he
       burned all the novels"

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

122 Moby Thesaurus words for "novel":
   Bildungsroman, Gothic novel, authentic, avant-garde, bauble,
   best seller, bibelot, blockbuster, book, bound book, classic,
   coloring book, comic novel, creative, curio, definitive work,
   detective novel, different, dime novel, dreadful, epistolary novel,
   erotic novel, firsthand, folio, fresh, gewgaw, gimcrack,
   great work, hardback, historical novel, imaginative, juvenile,
   juvenile book, limp-cover book, magnum opus, modern, modernistic,
   narrative, neoteric, new, new-fashioned, newfangled, nonbook,
   notebook, nouvelle, novel of character, novel of ideas,
   novel of incident, novel of manners, novel of sensibility,
   novelette, novella, odd, opus, opuscule, opusculum, original,
   paperback, peculiar, penny dreadful, picaresque novel,
   picture book, playbook, pocket book, pornographic novel,
   prayer book, problem novel, production, proletarian novel,
   propaganda novel, psalmbook, psalter, psychological novel,
   publication, recent, regional novel, revolutionary, river novel,
   roman, roman a clef, roman-fleuve, romance, satirical novel,
   science-fiction novel, sentimental novel, serial, shilling shocker,
   short story, short-short, singular, sketchbook, sociological novel,
   soft-cover, songbook, special, standard work, storiette, story,
   storybook, strange, stream-of-consciousness novel, tale,
   thesis novel, title, tome, trade book, trifle, trinket, uncommon,
   unconventional, underived, unfamiliar, unheard-of, unique,
   untested, untried, unusual, vignette, volume, whatnot, work,
   writing



The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906):

NOVEL, n.  A short story padded.  A species of composition bearing the
same relation to literature that the panorama bears to art.  As it is
too long to be read at a sitting the impressions made by its
successive parts are successively effaced, as in the panorama.  Unity,
totality of effect, is impossible; for besides the few pages last read
all that is carried in mind is the mere plot of what has gone before.
To the romance the novel is what photography is to painting.  Its
distinguishing principle, probability, corresponds to the literal
actuality of the photograph and puts it distinctly into the category
of reporting; whereas the free wing of the romancer enables him to
mount to such altitudes of imagination as he may be fitted to attain;
and the first three essentials of the literary art are imagination,
imagination and imagination.  The art of writing novels, such as it
was, is long dead everywhere except in Russia, where it is new.  Peace
to its ashes -- some of which have a large sale.