Forms: α. 4 lorer(e, lorrer, 4–7 laurer(e, 5–7 lawrer(e, 5 laurear, -ier, lawrare, 6 lawryr, 7 lowrier. β. 4 laureal, 5 laurialle, -yel, lawriall, -ielle, (loryel, larel, -ielle), 5–6 lorel(l, 6–7 lau-, lawrell, 7 lawreall, 7–8 lawrel, (7 lowrell), 6– laurel. [ad. F. laurier for lorier, f. OF. lor:—L. laur-us: the β forms arise from the common substitution of l for a second r in a word. Cf. mod.Sp. laurel. In some of the forms there may be confusion with LAUREOLE.]
1. The Bay-tree or Bay-laurel, Laurus nobilis: see BAY sb.1 2. Now rare exc. as in 2.
α. a. 1300. Cursor M., 8235. He … planted tres þat war to prais, O cedre, o pine, and o lorrer.
c. 1381. Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 182. The victor palm, the laurer [v.rr. lawrer, laureol] to deuyne.
a. 1400. Med. MS., in Archæologia, XXX. 358. Lewys of lorere & rwe ye take.
1412–20. Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. viii. With ye lawyer … They crowned ben.
c. 1500. Lancelot, 82. To my spreit vas seen A birde, yat was as ony lawrare green.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xlvi. 6. Vpone a blisful brenche of lawryr grene.
1652. Ashmole, Theat. Chem., 214. The Laurer of nature ys ever grene.
β. c. 1350. [see laurel-tree in 6].
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 4961. A tre … Largior þen a lawriall & lengur withall.
c. 1420. Anturs of Arth., vi. By a lauryel he lay, vndur a lefe sale.
1496. Dives & Paup. (W. de W.), I. xxviii. 66. Some he ordeyned to be grene wynter & somer, as lorell, boxe, holme.
1561. Hollybush, Hom. Apoth., 23 b. Take … the leaves of Lorel or Baye.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 173. The Lawrell, both leafe, bark, and berry, is by nature hot.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, I. 10. Ascopo, a kinde of Tree like Lowrell.
1734. Pope, Ess. Man, IV. 11. ’Twin’d with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield.
1808. Scott, in Biog. Notices (1880), 19. He would have twisted another branch of laurel into his garland.
1876. Harley, Mat. Med. (ed. 6), 450. The Laurel or Sweet Bay, is a native of the North of Asia and the Mediterranean regions.
† b. The leaves of the same used medicinally.
1477. Norton, Ord. Alch., v. in Ashm. (1652), 67. Lawrell the Laxative.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helthe (1539), 60. Lawrell.
c. Any plant of the genus Laurus or the N.O. Lauraceæ.
1846. Lindley, Veg. Kingd., 535. Order ccv. Lauraceæ—Laurels. Ibid., 537. In some cases a volatile oil is obtained from the Laurels in large quantities.
2. The foliage of this tree as an emblem of victory or of distinction in poetry, etc.
a. collect. sing.
α. c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 169. Hoom he rood anon With laurer crowned as a Conquerour.
c. 1425. Lydg., Assembly Gods, 791. Crownyd with laurer as lord vyctoryous.
1515. Barclay, Egloges, I. (1570), A j b/2. Then who would ascribe, except he were a foole, The pleasant laurer vnto the mourning cowle.
1604. J. Webster, Ode, in S. Harrison, Archs Tri., B b. To euery brow They did allow The liuing Laurer which begirted round Their rusty Helmets.
β. 1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), V. 169. Þere he dede meny victories, and gat a crown of laureal þat hyng bitwene tweie pilers.
c. 1460. Play Sacram., 882. Gyff lawrelle to that lord of myght.
a. 1631. Donne, Epigr. (1652), 97. It with Lawrell crown’d thy conquering Browes.
1813. Scott, Trierm., III. xxxv. A crown did that fourth maiden hold,… Of glossy laurel made.
b. A branch or wreath of this tree. lit. and fig.
α. 1429. Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 141. God of his grace gaf to thy kynrede The palme of conquest, the laurere of victorye.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 26. Laurear of martirs, foundid on holynes!
1607. Dekker, Knts. Conjur. (1842), 75. These elder fathers of the diuine furie gaue him [Spenser] a lawrer, and sung his welcome.
β. 1578. Timme, Caluine on Gen., 207. The Oliue … was a sign of peace, even as the Lawrell is a token of victory.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 76, ¶ 4. Virtue need never ask twice for her Lawrel.
c. 1718. Prior, Ladle, 36. Fame flies after with a laurel.
1847. Emerson, Repr. Men, Goethe, Wks. (Bohn), I. 387. Still he is a poet—poet of a prouder laurel than any contemporary.
1850. Prescott, Peru, II. 351. The laurel of the hero … grows best on the battle-field.
c. pl. in the same sense, lit. and fig. Also in phr. to reap, win one’s laurels, to repose, rest, retire on one’s laurels. To look to one’s laurels: to beware of losing one’s pre-eminence.
1585. Jas. I., Ess. Poesie (Arb.), 23. Phœbus crowns all verses … with Laurers always grene.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. iii. 107. Prerogatiue of Age, Crownes, Scepters, Lawrels.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., III. iii. 157. The Conquerours in the Olympian games did not put on the Laurells on their own heads.
1680. Otway, Orphan, Ded. Under the Spreading of that Shade, where two of the best [Poets] have planted their Lawrels.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 21, ¶ 4. They neither pant for laurels, nor delight in blood.
1805. Med. Jrnl., XIV. 372. Puny attempts to blast the laurels … of Jenner.
1818. Byron, Juan, I. cxxvi. ’Tis sweet to win, no matter how, one’s laurels.
1855. Motley, Dutch Rep., V. i. (1866), 651. Here he reaped his first laurels.
1859. Helps, Friends in C., Ser. II. I. To Rdr. 6. They might really repose upon their laurels.
1874. Deutsch, Rem., 250. Let them rest on their laurels for a while.
1882. Mrs. Riddell, Pr. of Wales’s Garden-Party, 306. The fair widow would be wise to look to her laurels.
1886. ‘Hugh Conway,’ Living or Dead, xxx. Rothwell … wrote one more book; then retired on his laurels.
† d. The dignity of Poet Laureate. Obs.
1700. Dryden, Fables, Pref. (1721), 3. My countryman and a predecessor in the Laurel [Chaucer].
1814. Edin. Rev., Jan., 454. A Dramatic Poem; which we earnestly hope was written before he [Southey] came to his Laurel and Butt of Sherry.
3. In modern use, applied to many trees and shrubs having leaves resembling those of the true laurel; esp. Cerasus Laurocerasus, the common laurel or cherry-laurel.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1679), 33. [Plants] not perishing but in excessive Colds,… Laurels, Cherry Laurel.
1736. Bailey, Houshold Dict., 378. Laurel, the Cherry Laurel or common Great Laurel.
1785. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., vii. 79. The genus Plum, comprehending the Apricot and Cherry … and also the Laurel.
1820. Wordsw., To Rev. Dr. Wordsworth, i. The encircling laurels … Gave back a rich and dazzling sheen.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 17. The common laurel … was brought from Constantinople to Holland in 1576.
1888. Miss Braddon, Fatal Three, I. v. A winding walk through thickets of laurel and arbutus.
¶ b. Some forms of this word were by certain writers of the 16th c. appropriated to the Spurge Laurel (see LAUREOLE).
1548. Turner [see LAURY].
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, III. xxxvi. 367. Lauriel groweth of the heigth of a foote and a halfe or more.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 452. In this rank is to be reckoned the wild shrub called Lowrier or Chamædaphne.
c. With defining word: Alexandrian Laurel, Ruscus racemosus; American Dwarf or Mountain Laurel = KALMIA; Cherry Laurel (see sense 3 above); Copse Laurel = Spurge Laurel; Great Laurel, an American name for Rhododendron maximum (Treas. Bot., 1866); Japan Laurel = AUCUBA; Native Laurel (Tasmania), Anopterus glandulosus; Portugal Laurel, Cerasus Lusitanica; Seaside Laurel, Xylophylla latifolia; Spurge Laurel, Daphne Laureola. For Ground-, Rose-, Sheep-laurel, see the first member.
1611. Cotgr., Laureole, spurge Laurell, little Laurell.
1736. [see 3].
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 316. Laurel, Alexandrian, Ruscus. Laurel, Dwarf, of America, Kalmia. Laurel, Sea-side, Phyllanthus. Laurel, Spurge, Daphne.
1774. Nicholls, Lett., in Corr. w. Gray (1843), 174. The Portugal laurel, your favourite Portugal laurel, grows to a size here which would tempt you to poison it through envy.
1882. Garden, 4 Feb., 85/2. The Alexandrian Laurel (Ruscus racemosus) is one of our most precious plants for foliage with cut flowers in winter.
1889. J. H. Maiden, Useful Native Plants Austral., 292. ‘Native Laurel.’ ‘Mock Orange.’
4. Numism. One of the English gold pieces (esp. those of 20s.), first coined in 1619, on which the monarch’s head was figured with a wreath of laurel. Cf. LAUREATE sb. 3.
a. 1623. Camden, Ann. Jas. I., an. 1619. 3 Sept., Aurea Regis moneta prodiit cum ejus capite laureato, unde Laurells nomen statim invenit apud vulgus, diversi valoris, scil. xxs. cum xx. xs. cum x. & quinque solidorum cum v.
1743. Snelling, Gold Coin, 20. The Unite or Laurel.
1866. Crump, Banking, x. 224. Gold laurel James I.
1884. Kenyon, Gold Coins Eng., 137. The Laurels were also called Broad Pieces.
5. attrib. and Comb.: a. simple attributive, as laurel-band, -berry, -bough, -branch, -bush, -chaplet, -crown, -garland, -leaf, -shade, -shrub, -thicket, -wreath; b. parasynthetic, as laurel-leaved adj.; c. objective, as laurel-bearing, -worthy adjs.; d. instrumental, as laurel-browed, -crowned, -decked, -locked, -wreathed adjs. Also laurel-like adj.
1584. Hudson, Du Bartas’ Judith, title-p. (1611), Binde your browes with *Laurer band.
1611. Florio, Laurifero, *laurell-bearing.
1561. Hollybush, Hom. Apoth., 3. A penny worth of *lorel or baye berries.
1811. A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp. (1818), 230. Laurel berries … are imported from the Streights.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 246/2. They that vaynquysshyd in bataylle were crowned wyth *laurier bowes.
a. 1593. Marlowe, Faustus (1604), F 2. Cut is the branch that might haue growne ful straight, And burned is Apolloes Laurel bough.
1550. Lyndesay, Test. Sqr. Meldrum, 138. Ilk Barroun beirand, in his hand, on hie, Ane *Lawrer branche, in signe of victorie.
1622. Bacon, Hen. VII., 85. Rather with an Oliue-branch … then a Laurel-branch in his Hand.
1823. Byron, Juan, XIII. xxxiii. The blaze Of sunset halos o’er the *laurel-brow’d.
1657. Trapp, Comm. Ps. xx. 5. They presented a Palm, or *Laurel-bush, to Jupiter.
1830. Wordsw., Russian Fugitive, III. ii. Conquerors thanked the Gods, With *laurel chaplets crowned.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., IV. vi. 34. To whom the Heau’ns, in thy Natiuitie, Adjudg’d an Oliue-Branch and *Lawrell Crowne.
1882. A. Hare, in Gd. Words, May, 338. The poet Empedocles, draped in purple robes, wearing a laurel crown.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, V. 1107. The *laurer crowned Phebus.
a. 1847. Eliza Cook, Song Old Year, ii. 15. Chant a roundelay over my *laurel-deck’d bier.
1577. Northbrooke, Dicing (1843), 101. A christian man ought not to go with a *laurell garland vpon his heade.
1607. F. Mason, Author. Ch., Ep. Ded. 3. Who … decked their victorious heads with lawreall garlands.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), IV. 295. For covetise of … *laurial leves wiþ oute eny fruyt.
c. 1450. ME. Med. Bk. (Heinrich), 146. Take of … percely, saueyne, lorel leues.
1747. Wesley, Prim. Physic (1762), 56. As much as lies on a sixpence of powder’d Lawrel Leaves.
1787. Fam. Plants, I. 379. *Laurel-leaved Tulip-tree.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Cinnamon & Pearls, iii. 41. The *laurel-like cinnamon.
1850. Mrs. Browning, Poems, II. 223. Her [Italy] *laurel-locked … Cæsars passing uninvoked.
1894. Gladstone, Horace Odes, II. xv. 9. Dense *laurel-shade shall stop the rays Of Summer.
1830. Tennyson, Poet’s Mind, 14. Every spicy flower Of the *laurel-shrubs.
1840. Browning, Sordello, Wks. 1896, I. 132. Beneath a flowering *laurel thicket lay Sordello.
1616. W. Browne, Brit. Past., II. i. In *Laurell-worthy rymes Her loue shall Liue vntill the end of times.
1721–2. Amherst, Terræ Filius, No. 10 (1754), 48. This … bard has … lampoon’d those, who fix’d the immortal *laurel-wreath upon his brows.
1818. Byron, Ch. Har., IV. xli. The true laurel-wreath which glory weaves Is of the tree no bolt of thunder cleaves.
1878. Symonds, Many Moods, Love & Death, 165. The *laurel-wreathed choir.
6. Special comb.: laurel-bay, † (a) = laurel-berry; (b) = Bay-laurel (sense 1); laurel-bottle, a bottle containing crushed laurel leaves, used by entomologists for killing insects; laurel-cherry = cherry laurel; hence laurel-cherry water = laurel water; † laurel-man, ? a member of one of the parties disaffected to the Hanover dynasty; laurel-oil = oil of laurel, a solid fat obtained from the berries of Laurus nobilis (Syd. Soc. Lex.); laurel-thyme = LAURUSTINUS; laurel-tree = sense 1; laurel-water Med., the water obtained by distillation from the leaves of the cherry-laurel and containing a small proportion of prussic acid.
c. 1450. ME. Med. Bk. (Heinrich), 198. Tak … *lorel bayes nistad in oyle.
1813. Scott, Trierm., III. xxxix. Round the Champion’s brows were bound The crown … Of the green laurel-bay.
1872. Wood, Insects at Home, 26. The following is the neatest way of making a *laurel-bottle.
1787. Fam. Plants, I. 339. *Laurel-cherry.
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), I. 487. Laurel-cherry water.
1730. Swift, Vind. Ld. Carteret, 27. Inflamers of Quarrels between the two Nations,… Haters of True Protestants, *Lawrel-men, Annists,… and the like.
1838. T. Thomson, Chem. Org. Bodies, 439. *Laurel oil is expressed from the berries of the laurus nobilis.
1693. Evelyn, De la Quint. Compl. Gard., II. 173. We have now … but few Flowers, except those of *Laurel-Time, or Laurus Thymus.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 2983. Vnder a louely *lorel tre in a grene place.
c. 1415. Lydg., Temple of Glas, 115. Daphne vnto a laurer tre Iturned was.
1549–62. Sternhold & H., Ps. xxxvii. 35. Flourishing … as doth the Laurell tree.
1731. Madden, in Phil. Trans., XXXVII. 85. One Part of *Laurel-Water to four of Brandy.
1829. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), II. 25. Counter-plottings, and laurel-water pharmacy.
Hence Laurelship = LAUREATESHIP.
1820. Examiner, No. 612. 1/2. Receiving the laurel which had been worn by Dryden, and Spenser, and Ben Jonson, and Daniel (a list of laurelships somewhat doubtful).
