Knight'hood, n.
(nīt'-hŏod), n. 1. The character, dignity, or condition of a knight.
If you needs must write, write Cæsar's praise; You'll gain, at least, a knighthood, or the bays. Pope.
Sense 2. The whole body of knights at a particular time.
The knighthood now-a-days are nothing like the knighthood of old time. Chapman.
Conferring Knighthood. (See Knight, def. 3.)
“When the order of knighthood was conferred with full solemnity in the leisure of a court or city, imposing preliminary ceremonies were required of the candidate. He prepared himself by prayer and fasting, watched his arms at night in a chapel, and was then admitted with the performance of religious rites. Knighthood was conferred by the accolade, which, from the derivation of the name, should appear to have been originally an embrace; but afterward consisted, as it still does, in a blow of the flat of a sword on the back of the kneeling candidate.” Brande.
