laurel

noun

• 1any of a number of shrubs and other plants with dark green glossy leaves, in particular:
• the mountain laurel.
• the cherry laurel.
• the bay tree. See bay².

• 2an aromatic evergreen shrub related to the bay tree, several kinds of which form forests in tropical and warm countries.

  • Family Lauraceae: many genera and species

• 3 (usually laurels) the foliage of the bay tree woven into a wreath or crown and worn on the head as an emblem of victory or mark of honor in classical times.
• honor or praise for an achievement:she has rightly won laurels for this brilliantly perceptive first novel

verb (laurels, laureling, laureled ; British laurelling, laurelled)

• adorn with or as if with a laurel:they banish our anger forever when they laurel the graves of our dead