prize-givings

She will bind herself to take no share in patriotic demonstrations; to assent to no form of national self-praise; to make no part of any claque or audience that encourages war; to absent herself from military displays, tournaments, tattoos, prize-givings and all such ceremonies as encourage the desire to impose ‘our’ civilization or ‘our’ dominion upon other people.

Three Guineas 2003

His family came to see him at Easter and also at the prize-givings; but on these occasions, to which he looked forward, his sister tells us, with eager delight, reproaches were generally his portion, on account of his want of success in school work.

Honore de Balzac, His Life and Writings

It is hard to be original at prize-givings, and the gentlemen who had been asked to "say a few words" might be forgiven if their remarks were somewhat hackneyed.

The Youngest Girl in the Fifth A School Story Angela Brazil 1907

He came to one of the prize-givings, and we were introduced.

The Independence of Claire George de Horne Vaizey 1887

Adams admits Leo, 50, has been doing "pretty well" at this year's prize-givings, having picked up gongs at the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild awards.

BBC News - Home 2011

Mr Parris seemed to have forgotten a cardinal rule of prize-givings: that the winner is there to be praised for being the best, rather than criticised for not being better.

The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed 2009

But Otello and Federer v Nadal had intermissions or gaps between games, and those industry prize-givings only stretched into the night because of self-indulgence.

Media news, UK and world media comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk 2009

And at that descent the walls of the Town Hall, which had echoed to political tirades, the solemn recitatives of oratorios, the mercantile uproar of bazaars, the banal compliments of prize-givings, the arid utterances of lecturers on science and art, and the moans of sinners stricken with a sense of guilt at religious revivals -- those walls resounded to a gay and frenzied ovation which is memorable in the town for its ungoverned transports of approval.

Leonora Arnold Bennett 1899