trophy
/ˈtrəʊfi
/noun (plural trophies)
1A cup or other decorative object awarded as a prize for a victory or success.The age groups ranged from four to 20, with a trophy awarded for first prize and certificates for second and third....
- The fun day was capped off by an awards presentation that provided trophies and prizes to the top three golfers in each of the three flights, along with prizes to the technical victors.
- Prizes include trophies and cash awards of 50,000 baht for the winning team and 25,000 baht for the runner-up.
Synonyms
cup, medal;
prize, award;
laurels, bays, palm
1.1A souvenir of an achievement, especially a part of an animal taken when hunting.It's rooted in providing a hunting opportunity, getting trophies for walls and rugs for floors....
- In one photo, Vasell poses alone holding up the head of his trophy with the hunting rifle leaned against the animal's body.
- Instead of hunting game for trophies or their products, people are hunting each other.
Synonyms
souvenir, memento, keepsake, reminder, record, relic;
spoils, booty
2(In ancient Greece or Rome) the weapons of a defeated army set up as a memorial of victory.The Temple of Zeus itself was funded from a military campaign, and its entablature was adorned with Spartan military trophies....
- In a warrior's hall trophies of war such as shields may also have been hung on the wall.
- For instance, armour and other trophies were often displayed above sepulchres.
Origin
Late 15th century (in sense 2): from French trophée, via Latin from Greek tropaion, from tropē 'a rout', from trepein 'to turn'.
Both tropic (Late Middle English) and trophy are ultimately from Greek trepein ‘to turn’. In ancient Greece and Rome a trophy was a pile of the weapons of a defeated army set up as a memorial of a victory. The attractive young trophy wife of a successful older man, is a term first used in the late 1980s. A tropic is a ‘turning point’, a point on the path through the sky that the sun can be seen to take through the year where, at the solstice, it appears to turn back again towards the equator.