LAUREL (laurelled, laurelling)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: laurelled    , laurelling   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Laurel mean? 

• LAUREL (noun)
  The noun LAUREL has 3 senses:

1. any of various aromatic trees of the laurel family

2. 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)

3. (antiquity) a wreath of laurel foliage worn on the head as an emblem of victory

  Familiarity information: LAUREL used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LAUREL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of various aromatic trees of the laurel family

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("laurel" is a kind of...):

angiospermous tree; flowering tree (any tree having seeds and ovules contained in the ovary)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "laurel"):

bay; bay laurel; bay tree; Laurus nobilis; true laurel (small Mediterranean evergreen tree with small blackish berries and glossy aromatic leaves used for flavoring in cooking; also used by ancient Greeks to crown victors)

camphor tree; Cinnamomum camphora (large evergreen tree of warm regions whose aromatic wood yields camphor)

Ceylon cinnamon; Ceylon cinnamon tree; Cinnamomum zeylanicum; cinnamon (tropical Asian tree with aromatic yellowish-brown bark; source of the spice cinnamon)

cassia; cassia-bark tree; Cinnamomum cassia (Chinese tree with aromatic bark; yields a less desirable cinnamon than Ceylon cinnamon)

Cinnamomum loureirii; Saigon cinnamon (tropical southeast Asian tree with aromatic bark; yields a bark used medicinally)

laurel-tree; Persea borbonia; red bay (small tree of southern United States having dark red heartwood)

sassafras; Sassafras albidum; sassafras tree (yellowwood tree with brittle wood and aromatic leaves and bark; source of sassafras oil; widely distributed in eastern North America)

California bay tree; California laurel; California olive; mountain laurel; Oregon myrtle; pepperwood; sassafras laurel; spice tree; Umbellularia californica (Pacific coast tree having aromatic foliage and small umbellate flowers followed by olivelike fruit; yields a hard tough wood)

Holonyms ("laurel" is a member of...):

family Lauraceae; Lauraceae; laurel family (a family of Lauraceae)

Sense 2

Meaning:

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)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Arthur Stanley Jefferson Laurel; Laurel; Stan Laurel

Instance hypernyms:

comedian; comic (a professional performer who tells jokes and performs comical acts)

Holonyms ("Laurel" is a member of...):

Laurel and Hardy (United States slapstick comedy duo who made many films together)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(antiquity) a wreath of laurel foliage worn on the head as an emblem of victory

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

bay wreath; laurel; laurel wreath

Hypernyms ("laurel" is a kind of...):

chaplet; coronal; garland; lei; wreath (flower arrangement consisting of a circular band of foliage or flowers for ornamental purposes)

Domain category:

antiquity (the historic period preceding the Middle Ages in Europe)

Domain region:

Ellas; Greece; Hellenic Republic (a republic in southeastern Europe on the southern part of the Balkan peninsula; known for grapes and olives and olive oil)

 Context examples 

Here are their marks on the left—here, beside the laurel bushes.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Descending the laurel walk, I faced the wreck of the chestnut-tree; it stood up black and riven: the trunk, split down the centre, gasped ghastly.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

There was a laurel bush outside the window, and several of the branches bore signs of having been twisted or snapped.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He could boast also of the higher honour of having been the first born American to win laurels in the British ring.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The song was considered a great success, and the singer retired covered with laurels.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

My uncle's gardener always says the soil here is better than his own, and so it appears from the growth of the laurels and evergreens in general.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The garden sloping to the road, the house standing in it, the green pales, and the laurel hedge, everything declared they were arriving.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Researchers from NASA and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, report that streams of meteoroids striking the Moon infuse the thin lunar atmosphere with a short-lived water vapor.

(Meteoroid Strikes Eject Precious Water From Moon, NASA)

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, examined high-resolution compositional data from more than 100 gully sites throughout Mars.

(Mars Gullies Likely Not Formed by Liquid Water, NASA)

Making our way among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)