hallmark

noun

1. (figuratively)A distinguishing characteristic.

   “You know what a university is, and a university degree? It is the necessary hallmark of a man who wants to do anything in teaching.”

   “The inference appears to be that there is some subtle connection between immorality and art, as if the handling of the lewd, or the depicting of it, were in some sort the hallmark of the true artist.”

   “A man needs only to be careful—and lucky—to live a long time in the Solomons; but he must also be of the right sort. He must have the hall-mark of the inevitable white man stamped upon his soul.”

   “In everything Brent said and did and wore, in all his movements, gestures, expressions, there was the unmistakable hallmark of the man worth while.”

   “Arsene Wenger's side showed little of the style and fluidity that is their hallmark but this was about digging deep and getting the job done, qualities they demonstrated and that will serve them well as the season reaches its climax.”

2. An official marking made by a trusted party, usually an assay office, on items made of precious metals.

   “It can highlight our embodiment, a qualitative step away from the hallmark machines that work so resolutely to disembody us.”

verb

1. To provide or stamp with a hallmark.

   “The cane was undoubtedly of foreign make, for it had a solid silver ferrule at one end, which was not English hall–marked.”

   “[…]everything on my plate those forks and fishslicers were hallmarked silver too I wish I had some I could easily have slipped a couple into my muff when I was playing with them[…]”

name

1. A surname.
2. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis)Ellipsis of Hallmark Cards.