graduate

plural graduates

1. A person who is recognized as having completed any of various levels of education.
   1. A person who is recognized by a university as having completed the requirements of a degree studied at the institution.

      If the government wants graduates to stay in the country, they should offer more incentives.

   2. CanadaPhilippinesUSA person who is recognized by a high school as having completed the requirements of a course of study at the school.

      If the school board wants a higher percentage of students to become graduates, they should improve their remedial help for underachieving students.

2. A graduated (marked) cup or other container, thus fit for measuring.

comparative more graduate · superlative most graduate

1. graduated, arranged by degrees
2. holding an academic degree
3. relating to an academic degree

present singular third person graduates · participle present graduating · participle past graduated · past graduated

1. ergativeintransitiveTo be recognized by a school or university as having completed the requirements of a degree studied at the institution.

   The man graduated in 1967.

   2 more examples

   Trisha graduated from college.

   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.

   2019 February 19, Jeremy Pelzer, “Youngstown School Board member Dario Hunter seeks Green Party presidential nomination”, in cleveland.com

2. proscribedtransitiveTo be certified as having earned a degree from; to graduate from (an institution).

   Trisha graduated college.

3. transitiveTo certify (a student) as having earned a degree

   Indiana University graduated the student.

   1 more example

   The college graduated him as soon as he was no longer eligible to play under NCAA rules.

4. transitiveTo mark (something) with degrees; to divide into regular steps or intervals, as the scale of a thermometer, a scheme of punishment or rewards, etc.
5. intransitiveTo change gradually.

   sandstone which graduates into gneiss; carnelian sometimes graduates into quartz

   2 more examples

   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.

   1852, William Macgillivray, A history of British birds, indigenous and migratory, page 573

   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.

   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

6. To prepare gradually; to arrange, temper, or modify by degrees or to a certain degree; to determine the degrees of.

   to graduate the heat of an oven

   1 more example

   Dyers, who advance and graduate their colours with salts.

   1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC

7. chemistryTo bring to a certain degree of consistency, by evaporation, as a fluid.
8. intransitiveTo taper, as the tail of certain birds.
9. transitivecomputingTo approve (a feature) for general release.

   We have graduated the new machine-learning features and will roll them out tomorrow.

10. JapaneseintransitiveentertainmentOf 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.

    Fans speculate that she was forced to graduate due to harassment and doxxing by stalkers and haters.