a person who has received a degree or diploma on completing a course of study, as in a university, college, or school.
2.
a student who holds the bachelor's or the first professional degree and is studying for an advanced degree.
3.
a cylindrical or tapering graduated container, used for measuring.
–adjective
4.
of, pertaining to, or involved in academic study beyond the first or bachelor's degree: graduate courses in business; a graduate student.
5.
having an academic degree or diploma: a graduate engineer.
–verb (used without object)
6.
to receive a degree or diploma on completing a course of study (often fol. by from): She graduated from college in 1985.
7.
to pass by degrees; change gradually.
–verb (used with object)
8.
to confer a degree upon, or to grant a diploma to, at the close of a course of study, as in a university, college, or school: Cornell graduated eighty students with honors.
9.
Informal. to receive a degree or diploma from: She graduated college in 1950.
10.
to arrange in grades or gradations; establish gradation in.
11.
to divide into or mark with degrees or other divisions, as the scale of a thermometer.
Origin: 1375–1425; late ME < ML graduātus (ptp. of graduāre), equiv. to grad(us) grade, step + -u- thematic vowel + -ātus-ate1
Related forms:
grad⋅u⋅a⋅tor, noun
Usage note: In the sense “to receive a degree or diploma” graduate followed by from is the most common construction today: Her daughter graduated from Yale in 1981. The passive form was graduated from, formerly insisted upon as the only correct pattern, has decreased in use and occurs infrequently today: My husband was graduated from West Point last year. Even though it is condemned by some as nonstandard, the use of graduate as a transitive verb meaning “to receive a degree or diploma from” is increasing in frequency in both speech and writing: The twins graduated high school in 1974.
grad·u·ate (grāj'ōō-āt') v.
grad·u·at·ed, grad·u·at·ing, grad·u·ates
v.
intr.
To be granted an academic degree or diploma: Two thirds of the entering freshmen stayed to graduate.
To change gradually or by degrees.
To advance to a new level of skill, achievement, or activity: After a summer of diving instruction, they had all graduated to back flips.
v.
tr.
To grant an academic degree or diploma to: The teachers hope to graduate her this spring.
Usage Problem To receive an academic degree from.
To arrange or divide into categories, steps, or grades.
To divide into marked intervals, especially for use in measurement.
n.
(-ĭt)
One who has received an academic degree or diploma.
A graduated container, such as a cylinder or beaker.
adj.
(-ĭt)
Possessing an academic degree or diploma.
Of, intended for, or relating to studies beyond a bachelor's degree: graduate courses.
[Middle English graduaten, to confer a degree, from Medieval Latin graduārī, graduāt-, to take a degree, from Latin gradus, step; see grade.] grad'u·a'tor n.
Usage Note: The verb graduate has denoted the action of conferring an academic degree or diploma since at least 1421. Accordingly, the action of receiving a degree should be expressed in the passive, as in She was graduated from Yale in 1998. This use is still current, if old-fashioned, and is acceptable to 78 percent of the Usage Panel. In general usage, however, it has largely yielded to the much more recent active pattern (first attested in 1807): She graduated from Yale in 1998. Eighty-nine percent of the Panel accepts this use. It has the advantage of ascribing the accomplishment to the student, rather than to the institution, which is usually appropriate in discussions of individual students. When the institution's responsibility is emphasized, however, the older pattern may still be recommended. A sentence such as The university graduated more computer science majors in 1997 than in the entire previous decade stresses the university's accomplishment, say, of its computer science program. On the other hand, the sentence More computer science majors graduated in 1997 than in the entire previous decade implies that the class of 1997 was in some way a remarkable group. · The Usage Panel feels quite differently about the use of graduate to mean "to receive a degree from," as in She graduated Yale in 1998. Seventy-seven percent object to this usage.
n. a person experienced in life, especially sexually experienced. : Britney is a graduate. Nothing is new to her.
in. [ˈgrædʒuet]to move from casual drug use to addiction. (Drugs.) : Gert graduated to smack after only a year of skin-popping.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition. Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
Word Origin & History
graduate (n.)
1479, from M.L. graduatus, pp. of graduari "to take a degree," from L. gradus "step, grade" (see grade). The abbreviated form grad is attested from 1871. The verb is 1588 (trans.), 1807 (intrans.).
[graj-oo-ey-tid] 
