graduate
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: note: yod-coalescence
ipa: /ˈɡɹæd͡ʒuət/
note: without the yod-coalescence
ipa: /ˈɡɹædjuət/
enpr: grăjʹo͞o-ĭt
ipa: /ˈɡɹæd͡ʒuɪt/
ipa: /ˈɡɹædjueɪt/
ipa: /ˈɡɹæd͡ʒueɪt/
enpr: grăjʹo͞o-āt
ipa: /ˈɡɹæd͡ʒueɪt/
note: yod-coalescence
ipa: /ˈɡɹæd͡ʒuət/
note: without the yod-coalescence
ipa: /ˈɡɹædjuət/
enpr: grăjʹo͞o-ĭt
ipa: /ˈɡɹæd͡ʒuɪt/
Forms: form: graduates
form: graduating
form: graduated
form: graduated
Etymology: From Middle English graduaten (“to graduate”), from (adjective) graduat(e) (also used as the past participle of graduaten) + -en (verb-forming suffix), from Medieval Latin graduātus, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.
Senses: examples: text: The man graduated in 1967.
text: Trisha graduated from college.
text: After graduating from Princeton University, he earned a law degree in Canada, then worked as an environmental lawyer in Israel before settling on the south side of Youngstown.
ref: 2019 February 19, Jeremy Pelzer, “Youngstown School Board member Dario Hunter seeks Green Party presidential nomination”, in cleveland.com:
glosses: To be recognized by a school or university as having completed the requirements of a degree studied at the institution.
examples: text: Trisha graduated college.
glosses: To be certified as having earned a degree from; to graduate from (an institution).
examples: text: Indiana University graduated the student.
text: The college graduated him as soon as he was no longer eligible to play under NCAA rules.
glosses: To certify (a student) as having earned a degree
glosses: To mark (something) with degrees; to divide into regular steps or intervals, as the scale of a thermometer, a scheme of punishment or rewards, etc.
examples: text: As the species graduate into each other, both in form and in habits, from the grass-eating Geese to the fish-eating Harelds, it is difficult, […] to divide this large group into sections.
ref: 1852, William Macgillivray, A history of British birds, indigenous and migratory, page 573:
text: Yadav, born Bharat Kalicharan, was a petty thief who had graduated to bigger crimes, terrorising Kasturba Nagar, on the edge of the city of Nagpur, in Maharashtra, from the 1990s until his death.
ref: 2022 November 7, Puja Bhattacharjee, “What drove 200 women to stab a gangster to death? Netflix series revisits crime that shocked India”, in the Guardian:
text: sandstone which graduates into gneiss; carnelian sometimes graduates into quartz
glosses: To change gradually.
examples: text: to graduate the heat of an oven
text: Dyers, who advance and graduate their colours with salts.
ref: 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To prepare gradually; to arrange, temper, or modify by degrees or to a certain degree; to determine the degrees of.
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To bring to a certain degree of consistency, by evaporation, as a fluid.
glosses: To taper, as the tail of certain birds.
examples: text: We have graduated the new machine-learning features and will roll them out tomorrow.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
software
glosses: To approve (a feature) for general release.
examples: text: Fans speculate that she was forced to graduate due to harassment and doxxing by stalkers and haters.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
glosses: Of an idol: to exit a group; or of a virtual YouTuber, to leave a management agency; usually accompanied with "graduation ceremony" send-offs, increased focus on the leaving member, and the like.
Derived terms: disgraduate
nongraduating
Related terms: grade
graduation