To laud someone doesn't mean to give them knighthood, but to praise them extravagantly — usually in a very public manner. Being lauded, of course, can have the same tonic effect as having been made a lord.
Fun fact: the word laud is related to the drug laudanum, a potent combo of alcohol and opium first invented in the sixteenth century. Its creator, the alchemist Parcelsus, clearly knowing the effect it had on people, took its name from the Latin word laudere, meaning "to praise." Not surprisingly, it remained one of the world's most lauded drugs until its use became strictly controlled in the early twentieth century.
