laurel
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English laurer, laurel, from Anglo-Norman lorer, from Old French lorier, from Vulgar Latin *laurārius, from Latin laurus (“laurel”). Doublet of loureiro.
Inflected forms:
form: laurels
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: laurels
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: laureling
pos: verb
tags: US
participle
present
form: laurelling
pos: verb
tags: UK
participle
present
form: laureled
pos: verb
tags: US
participle
past
form: laureled
pos: verb
tags: US
past
form: laurelled
pos: verb
tags: UK
participle
past
form: laurelled
pos: verb
tags: UK
past
Senses:
gloss: An evergreen shrub of species Laurus nobilis, having aromatic leaves of a lanceolate shape, with clusters of small, yellowish white flowers in their axils.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Laurel leaves were used in the Orient to promote amatory exercise.
gloss: A crown of laurel.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Honor, distinction, fame.
pos: noun
tags: countable
figuratively
in-plural
uncountable
examples: to win laurels
to crown with laurels
I was semi-famous; I had been something, but as one worthy critic remarked: past laurels fade fast.
gloss: Any plant of the family Lauraceae.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Any of various plants of other families that resemble laurels.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: An English gold coin made in 1619, and so called because the king's head on it was crowned with laurel.
pos: noun
tags: countable
historical
uncountable
gloss: To decorate with laurel, especially with a laurel wreath.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Windows peered from the spaces between the columns, which rose to hold up the large portico laureling the home with chiseled, decorative wreaths and curving spirals.
gloss: To enwreathe.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: It wasn't hot this late in the year, and the sun was low in the southern sky, bracketed by pines and nearly hidden by a tree line laureling a trailer park.
gloss: To award top honours to.
pos: verb
tags: informal
transitive
examples: In this regiment there was a young corporal, a native of Little K . He was laurelled and decorated more than many of his companions, for he excelled them all in courage, coolness, and daring. In one thing more he also excelled them — he was cruel, he was dissipated, and he was vicious in his tastes.
Not in any vision of that order did he figure for most of the admirers who laurelled him on his eightieth birthday and the few who go on laurelling him still.
He was laurelled in admiring headlines from both left and right.
In 1973, the modern papist missionary was laurelled an honorary Doctor of Divinity by the institution founded by a Congregationalist missionary to the Indians of the northern wilds.
Related words: Laura
lauraceous
laureate
Lauren
Laurence
laurestine
Lauretta
lauriferous
laurustinus
Laurel and Hardy
Derived words: Alexandrian laurel
American laurel
bat laurel
bay laurel
bog laurel
California laurel
camphor laurel
cherry laurel
Chilean laurel
dog-laurel
great laurel
Grecian laurel
ground laurel
Laurel County
laurel dodder
laurel green
laurel hell
Laurel Hill
laurel oak
laurel rose
laurel soap
Laurel Springs
laurel sumac
laurel water
laurel wreath
Macleay laurel
mountain laurel
Mount Laurel
New Zealand laurel
Oregon laurel
Portugal laurel
Queensland laurel
rest on one's laurels
rose laurel
sheep laurel
sit on one's laurels
spotted laurel
spurge laurel
spurge-laurel
true laurel
West Indian laurel
Translations: