award
/əˈwɔːd
/verb [with two objects]
1Give or order the giving of (something) as an official payment, compensation, or prize to (someone): he was awarded the Military Cross a 3.5 per cent pay rise was awarded to staff...
- A good case can be made for including only finishes for which prize money is awarded.
- The jury at Cannes last year agreed, awarding it the Jury Prize.
- I used to run a bar in East London and made the mistake a couple years ago of awarding the fancy dress prize at a New Year's Eve party to a guy dressed as a suicide bomber.
Synonyms
give, grant;
confer on, present to, bestow on, gift with, furnish with, endow with, decorate with;
accord, assign, apportion, allot, allocate, allow
1.1Grant or assign (a contract or commission) to (a person or organization): the company was awarded a contract to refurbish the timber mill...
- The Commission objected and a deal was finally struck allowing Uefa to award broadcasting rights contracts for a maximum period of three years.
- The contracts are being awarded exclusively to US firms and are by invitation only.
- They must rue awarding him a three-year contract in January.
noun
1A prize or other mark of recognition given in honour of an achievement: the company’s annual award for high-quality service...
- Women from across Yorkshire were honoured yesterday in awards recognising their outstanding achievements.
- Nobody ever said it would be easy to establish an annual awards ceremony honouring the best productions in Scottish film and television.
- The annual award recognizes outstanding achievements in sports turf management among the 180 state members.
Synonyms
prize, trophy, medal;
reward, honours, decoration
informal gong
1.1An amount of money given as an official payment, compensation, or grant: a 1.5 per cent pay award...
- Some €142 million of that amount was paid out in compensation awards, with the balance made up of legal and administrative costs.
- Even students who are not eligible for the full amount of these awards pay nothing up front, unlike the present system which requires an annual fixed fee of £1, 125.
- Law-abiding drivers will have to fork out extra to pay for compensation awards to victims of some 1,000 hit-and-run incidents being dealt with by insurers.
Synonyms
payment, settlement, compensation, damages
grant, scholarship;
subsidy, subvention, endowment;
British bursary, bursarship
1.2 [mass noun] The action of giving a payment, compensation, or prize: the award of an honorary doctorate [count noun]: an award of damages...
- The commission also recommends that social welfare payments should be deducted from the appropriate component of any award of damages.
- This month the court of appeal upheld the High Court's award of damages for infringement of his copyright.
- Where the harm is attributable partly to the fault of the defendant and partly to that of the claimant then any award of damages may be reduced by reason of the claimant's contributory negligence.
Synonyms
giving, granting, conferment, conferral, presentation, bestowal
Derivatives
awardee
- All platinum winners received US $1200, plus complimentary hotel nights at various Caribbean hotels, while the gold awardees banked US $800, plus complimentary hotel stays.
- ‘Generally social functions for awardees are held in Sydney, but we wanted something more local and this is the result,’ Jill said.
- Several of this year's speakers and awardees are inappropriate and their presence at Catholic institutions is scandalous.
awarder
- Some awarders judged that the limited time available in Year 12 (lower sixth form) to study for AS examinations could be the cause of some answers being limited in one or more ways.
- The very minimal way an award winner can ‘pay back’ the awarder is to provide a link to the site.
- The policies of awarders normally require that these awards be accumulated in personal accounts that the awarders maintain.
Origin
Late Middle English (in the sense 'issue a judicial decision', also denoting the decision itself): from Anglo-Norman French awarder, variant of Old French esguarder 'consider, ordain', from es- (from Latin ex 'thoroughly') + guarder 'watch (over)', based on a word of Germanic origin related to ward; compare with guard.