laurel

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A Mediterranean evergreen tree (Laurus nobilis) having aromatic, simple leaves and small blackish berries. Also called bay⁵, bay laurel, sweet bay.
2. n. A shrub or tree, such as the mountain laurel, having a similar aroma or leaf shape.
3. n. A wreath of laurel conferred as a mark of honor in ancient times upon poets, heroes, and victors in athletic contests. Often used in the plural.
4. n. Honor and glory won for great achievement. Often used in the plural.
5. v. To crown with laurel.
6. v. To honor, especially with an award or a prize.
7. idiom. rest on (one's) laurels To rely on one's past achievements instead of working to maintain or advance one's status or reputation.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The bay-tree or bay-laurel, Laurus nobilis. This is the true laurel of the ancients and the poets.
2. n. Any species of the genus Laurus.
3. n. Any one of many diverse plants whose leaves suggest those of the true laurel. In English gardens the common laurel, or cherry-laurel, more properly laurel-cherry, is Prunus Lauro-Cerasus (see cherry); the Portugal laurel is P. Lusitanica. The copse-, spurge-, or wood-laurel of England is Daphne Laureola. American laurel is the genus Kalmia, including the mountain-laurel of the eastern United States (K. latifolia), the lambkill or sheep-laurel (K. angustifolia), and the pale laurel or swamp-laurel (K. glauca). (See cut under Kalmia.) The great laurel of the same region is the rosebay, Rhododendron maximum; and the ground-laurel is the trailing arbutus, Epigœa repens. (See cut under Epigœa.) The white laurel, another swamp-laurel, of the Atlantic coast and the South, is Magnolia glauca, also called sweetbay. Further south the big laurel, or bull-bay, is Magnolia grandiflora. The Carolina cherry-laurel is Prunus Caroliniana. The California laurel or bay-tree, the mountain-laurel of the West, is Umbellularia Californica. The West Indian laurel is Prunus occidentalis; the seaside laurel of the same locality comprises Phyllanthus latifolius, P. falcatus, and P. linearis. The Japanese laurel, cultivated in several varieties, is Aucuba Japonica of the dogwood family. The Tasmanian laurel is Anopterus glandulosus.
4. n. A crown of laurel; hence, honors acquired; claims to or tokens of distinction or glory: often in the plural: as, to win laurels in battle.
5. n. An English gold coin worth 20 shillings, or about 5 dollars, first issued in 1619 by James I.: so called because the head of the king was wreathed with laurel, and not crowned, as on earlier English coins. It was also called broad, unite, and jacobus. See cut under broad, n.
6. n. A salmon which has remained in fresh water during the summer.
7. Pertaining to or consisting of laurel: as, a laurel wreath.
8. n. In Porto Rico, Mexico, and Central America, a name applied to many species of Ocoted, Damburneya, and allied genera of Lauraceæ; especially, in Porto Rico, to Ocotea fœniculacea, O. floribunda, Damburneya Sintenisii (Nectandra Sintenisii of Mez), D. Krugii (Nectandra Krugii of Mez), and D. coriacea (Nectandra coriacea of Grisebach).
9. n. The Victorian laurel, Pittosporum undulatum. Also called mock-orange.
10. n. A tree of the ginseng family, Polyscias elegans, yielding a light, soft wood. Also called white sycamore.
11. n. The American laurel.
12. n. The oleander.
13. n. The laurel-magnolia, Magnolia Virginiana.
14. To crown with, or as with, laurel as a distinction.

Wiktionary

1. n. An evergreen shrub, of the genus Laurus, having aromatic leaves of a lanceolate shape, with clusters of small, yellowish white flowers in their axils.
2. n. A crown of laurel.
3. n. figuratively honor, distinction, fame.
4. n. An English gold coin made in 1619, and so called because the king's head on it was crowned with laurel

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Bot.) An evergreen shrub, of the genus Laurus (Laurus nobilis), having aromatic leaves of a lanceolate shape, with clusters of small, yellowish white flowers in their axils; -- called also sweet bay.
2. n. A crown of laurel; hence, honor; distinction; fame; -- especially in the plural.
3. n. An English gold coin made in 1619, and so called because the king's head on it was crowned with laurel.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. United States slapstick comedian (born in England) who played the scatterbrained and often tearful member of the Laurel and Hardy duo who made many films (1890-1965)
2. n. (antiquity) a wreath of laurel foliage worn on the head as an emblem of victory
3. n. any of various aromatic trees of the laurel family