Definition of "poet laureate" []

• A poet appointed for life by a British monarch as a member of the royal household and expected to write poems celebrating occasions of national importance and honoring the royal family. (noun)
• A poet appointed to a similar honorary position or honored for artistic excellence. (noun)
• A poet acclaimed as the most excellent or most representative of a locality or group. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Decades later, known as Amiri Baraka, Jones became the poet laureate of New Jersey."
• "When Masefield died in May after being poet laureate for thirty-seven years, many said that in the late 1960s the whole idea of an official poet was old-fashioned."