Bemedaled

1909, Ambrose Bierce, “The American Sycophant” in The Shadow of the Dial and other Essays, San Francisco: A.M. Robertson, pp. 208-209, However it may be customary for English newspapers to designate the English sovereign, they are at least not addicted to sycophancy in designating the rulers of other countries than their own. They would not say “His Abracadabral Humptidumptiness Emperor William” […] They would not think of calling even the most ornately self-bemedaled American sovereign elector “His Badgesty.”

[…] there was to the ferocity of his eye, the splendour of his famous moustache, his immense bemedalled figure and his utterly humourless brand of imperialism—there was to Kitchener, though one might hardly dare say it to his face, something faintly absurd.

The bemedaled Marine refused to fall on his sword and take full blame for the scandal.

The evening had its glamorous elements, with elegantly dressed women and bemedaled and beribboned military officers circulating through the first-floor rooms; Barry, the postmaster general, and the only Eaton ally in the Cabinet except for Van Buren, called it “the most splendid entertainment I have been at in Washington.”

The luckier and less disabled ones manned lifts or were posted at the doors of public buildings, a uniformed and bemedalled conciergerie who were more often than not unhelpful, making the most of whatever petty authority they were invested with.