accolade

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun An expression of approval; praise.
• noun A special acknowledgment; an award.
• noun A ceremonial embrace, as of greeting or salutation.
• noun Ceremonial bestowal of knighthood.
• transitive verb To praise or honor.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A ceremony used in conferring knighthood, anciently consisting in an embrace, afterward in giving the candidate a blow upon the shoulder with the flat of a sword, the latter being the present method; hence, the blow itself.
• noun In music, a brace or couplet connecting several staves. In architecture, an ornament composed of two ogee curves meeting in the middle, each concave toward its outer extremity and convex toward the point at which it meets the other.
• noun In Roman and early monastic MSS., the curved stroke made by the copyist around a final word written below the line to which it belonged, in order to avoid carrying it on to the next.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A ceremony formerly used in conferring knighthood, consisting of an embrace, and a slight blow on the shoulders with the flat blade of a sword.
• noun (Mus.) A brace used to join two or more staves.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun An expression of approval; praise.
• noun A special acknowledgment; an award.
• noun An embrace of greeting or salutation.
• noun historical A salutation marking the conferring of knighthood, consisting of an embrace or a kiss, and a slight blow on the shoulders with the flat of a sword.
• noun music A brace used to join two or more staves.
• noun US, military Written Presidential certificate recognizing service by personnel who died or were wounded in action between 1917 and 1918, or who died in service between 1941 and 1947, or died of wounds received in Korea between June 27, 1950 and July 27, 1954. Service of civilians who died overseas or as a result of injury or disease contracted while serving in a civilian capacity with the United States Armed Forces during the dates and/or in areas prescribed is in like manner recognized.
• verb transitive To embrace or kiss in salutation.
• verb transitive, historical To confer a knighthood on.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a tangible symbol signifying approval or distinction