NOUN (1)

1. someone honored for great achievements; figuratively someone crowned with a laurel wreath;


ADJECTIVE (1)

1. worthy of the greatest honor or distinction;
- Example: "The nation's pediatrician laureate is preparing to lay down his black bag"- James Traub

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Laureate \Lau"re*ate\, n.
   1. One crowned with laurel; a poet laureate. "A learned
      laureate." --Cleveland.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. A person who has been presented with an award for some
      distinguished achievement; as, a Nobel laureate; the Pris
      de Rome laureate; the Music Director Laureate; the
      conductor laureate.
      [PJC]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Laureate \Lau"re*ate\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Laureated; p. pr. &
   vb. n. Laureating.]
   To honor with a wreath of laurel, as formerly was done in
   bestowing a degree at the English universities.
   [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Laureate \Lau"re*ate\, a. [L. laureatus, fr. laurea laurel tree,
   fr. laureus of laurel, fr. laurus laurel: cf. F. laur['e]at.
   Cf. Laurel.]
   Crowned, or decked, with laurel. --Chaucer.
   [1913 Webster]

         To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies.
                                                  --Milton.
   [1913 Webster]

         Soft on her lap her laureate son reclines. --Pope.
   [1913 Webster]

   Poet laureate.
   (b) One who received an honorable degree in grammar,
       including poetry and rhetoric, at the English
       universities; -- so called as being presented with a
       wreath of laurel. [Obs.]
   (b) Formerly, an officer of the king's household, whose
       business was to compose an ode annually for the king's
       birthday, and other suitable occasions; now, a poet
       officially distinguished by such honorary title, the
       office being a sinecure. It is said this title was first
       given in the time of Edward IV. [Eng.]
   (c) A poet who has been publicly recognized as the most
       pre-eminent poet of a country or region; as, the poet
       laureate of the United States.
       [1913 Webster +PJC]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

laureate
    adj 1: worthy of the greatest honor or distinction; "The
           nation's pediatrician laureate is preparing to lay down
           his black bag"- James Traub
    n 1: someone honored for great achievements; figuratively
         someone crowned with a laurel wreath

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

79 Moby Thesaurus words for "laureate":
   A per se, Meistersinger, Olympic medal winner, Parnassian, ace,
   arch-poet, award winner, ballad maker, balladmonger, bard,
   beat poet, boss, bucoliast, champ, champion, chief, commander,
   crowned with laurel, dean, distinguished, elegist, epic poet, fili,
   fugleman, genius, head, higher-up, honored, idyllist, imagist,
   jongleur, leader, librettist, major poet, maker, master, medalist,
   minnesinger, minor poet, minstrel, modernist, nonpareil,
   occasional poet, odist, paragon, pastoral poet, pastoralist, poet,
   poet laureate, poetress, principal, prizeman, prizetaker,
   prizewinner, prodigy, rhapsode, rhapsodist, ruler, satirist, scop,
   senior, skald, sonneteer, star, superior, superman, superstar,
   symbolist, the greatest, the most, top dog, troubadour, trouveur,
   trovatore, vers libriste, vers-librist, virtuoso, world champion,
   world-record holder



The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906):

LAUREATE, adj.  Crowned with leaves of the laurel.  In England the
Poet Laureate is an officer of the sovereign's court, acting as
dancing skeleton at every royal feast and singing-mute at every royal
funeral.  Of all incumbents of that high office, Robert Southey had
the most notable knack at drugging the Samson of public joy and
cutting his hair to the quick; and he had an artistic color-sense
which enabled him so to blacken a public grief as to give it the
aspect of a national crime.