accolade

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An expression of approval; praise.
2. n. A special acknowledgment; an award.
3. n. A ceremonial embrace, as of greeting or salutation.
4. n. Ceremonial bestowal of knighthood.
5. v. To praise or honor: "His works are invariably accoladed as definitive even as they sparkle and spark” ( Malcolm S. Forbes).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A ceremony used in conferring knighthood, anciently consisting in an embrace, afterward in giving the candidate a blow upon the shoulder with the flat of a sword, the latter being the present method; hence, the blow itself.
2. n. In music, a brace or couplet connecting several staves. In architecture, an ornament composed of two ogee curves meeting in the middle, each concave toward its outer extremity and convex toward the point at which it meets the other. Such accolades are either plain or adorned with rich moldings, and are a frequent motive of decoration on the lintels of doors and windows of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, especially in secular architecture. Viollet-le-Duc.
3. n. In Roman and early monastic MSS., the curved stroke made by the copyist around a final word written below the line to which it belonged, in order to avoid carrying it on to the next.

Wiktionary

1. n. An expression of approval; praise.
2. n. A special acknowledgment; an award.
3. n. A salutation marking the conferring of knighthood, consisting of an embrace or a kiss, and a slight blow on the shoulders with the flat of a sword.
4. n. A brace used to join two or more staves.
5. n. Written Presidential certificate recognizing service by personnel who died or were wounded in action between 1917 and 1918, or who died in service between 1941 and 1947, or died of wounds received in Korea between June 27, 1950 and July 27, 1954. Service of civilians who died overseas or as a result of injury or disease contracted while serving in a civilian capacity with the United States Armed Forces during the dates and/or in areas prescribed is in like manner recognized.
6. v. To embrace or kiss in salutation.
7. v. To confer a knighthood on.
8. n. An expression of approval; praise.
9. n. A special acknowledgment; an award.
10. n. A salutation marking the conferring of knighthood, consisting of an embrace or a kiss, and a slight blow on the shoulders with the flat of a sword.
11. n. A brace used to join two or more staves.
12. n. Written Presidential certificate recognizing service by personnel who died or were wounded in action between 1917 and 1918, or who died in service between 1941 and 1947, or died of wounds received in Korea between June 27, 1950 and July 27, 1954. Service of civilians who died overseas or as a result of injury or disease contracted while serving in a civilian capacity with the United States Armed Forces during the dates and/or in areas prescribed is in like manner recognized.
13. v. To embrace or kiss in salutation.
14. v. To confer a knighthood on.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A ceremony formerly used in conferring knighthood, consisting of an embrace, and a slight blow on the shoulders with the flat blade of a sword.
2. n. A brace used to join two or more staves.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a tangible symbol signifying approval or distinction