rate

plural rates

1. countableobsoleteuncountableThe worth of something; value.First known use 15th–19th centuries

   There shall no figure at such rate be set, / As that of true and faithfull Iuliet.

   c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]

   1 more example

   His natural parts were not of the first rate, but he had greatly improved them by a learned education.

   1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC

2. countableuncountableThe proportional relationship between one amount, value etc. and another.First known use 15th c.

   At the height of his powers, he was producing pictures at the rate of four a year.

   2 more examples

   Negative responses to this program were being received by the office of the National Gay Task Force at the rate of ten to one.

   1979 December 29, Cindy Stein, “Queers in America's Living Rooms”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 23, page 10

   In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%.

   2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74

3. countableuncountableSpeed.First known use 17th c.

   The car was speeding down here at a hell of a rate.

   1 more example

   Many of the horse could not march at that rate, nor come up soon enough.

   1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, (please specify |book=I to XVI), in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the [Sheldonian] Theater

4. countableuncountableThe relative speed of change or progress.First known use 18th c.

   The rate of production at the factory is skyrocketing.

5. countableuncountableThe price of (an individual) thing; cost.First known use 16th c.

   He asked quite a rate to take me to the airport.

6. countableuncountableA set price or charge for all examples of a given case, commodity, service etc.First known use 16th c.

   Postal rates here are low.

7. countableuncountableA wage calculated in relation to a unit of time.

   We pay an hourly rate of between $10 – $15 per hour depending on qualifications and experience.

8. countableuncountableAny of various taxes, especially those levied by a local authority.First known use 17th c.

   I hardly have enough left every month to pay the rates.

9. countableuncountablenauticalA class into which ships were assigned based on condition, size etc.; by extension, rank.

   This textbook is first-rate.

10. countableobsoleteuncountableEstablished portion or measure; fixed allowance; ration.

    The one right feeble through the evil rate / Of food which in her duress she had found.

    1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

11. obsoleteuncountableOrder; arrangement.

    Thus sat they all around in seemly rate.

    1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

12. countableobsoleteuncountableRatification; approval.

    c. 1610s, George Chapman, Caesar and Pompey Tis offerd, Sir, 'boue the rate of Caesar In other men, but in what I approue Beneath his merits: which I will not faile T'enforce at full to Pompey, nor forget In any time the gratitude of my seruice.

13. countableuncountablehobbiesThe gain or loss of a timepiece in a unit of time.

    daily rate; hourly rate; etc.

present singular third person rates · participle present rating · participle past rated · past rated

1. transitiveTo assign or be assigned a particular rank or level.

   She is rated fourth in the country.

2. transitiveTo evaluate or estimate the value of.

   They rate his talents highly.

   1 more example

   To rate a man by the nature of his companions is a rule frequent indeed, but not infallible.

   1661, Robert South, False Foundations Removed (sermon)

   Synonyms: appraise, evaluate, worthen, appraise, apprise, apprize, assess, esteem

3. transitiveTo consider or regard.

   He rated this book brilliant.

   Synonyms: esteem, regard, respect, esteem, honor, idolize, lay store by, look up to

4. transitiveTo deserve; to be worth.

   The view here hardly rates a mention in the travel guide.

   2 more examples

   Only two assistant district attorneys rate corner offices, and Mandelbaum wasn't one of them.

   1955, Rex Stout, "When a Man Murders...", in Three Witnesses, October 1994 Bantam edition, page 101

   A few things DO work in Too Outrageous!, though I am not sure they rate the price of admission.

   1987 December 6, Paul Vincent Leone, “Too, Too Outrageous!”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 21, page 7

5. transitiveTo determine the limits of safe functioning for a machine or electrical device.

   The transformer is rated at 10 watts.

6. UKtransitiveTo evaluate a property's value for the purposes of local taxation.
7. informaltransitiveTo like; to think highly of.

   The customers don't rate the new burgers.

8. transitivehobbiesTo take action to slow down the pace of the horse one is riding.

   Throughout the first turn is where the jockey rates the horse if the need arises. Rating a horse is where you keep it from putting out too much too soon.

   2019, Jay Cronley, Good Vibes

9. intransitiveTo have position (in a certain class).

   He rates as the best cyclist in the country.

   1 more example

   She rates among the most excellent chefs in the world.

   Synonyms: rank

10. intransitiveTo have value or standing.

    This last performance of hers didn't rate very high with the judges.

11. transitiveTo ratify.

    to rate the truce

    [1611?], Homer, “(please specify |book=I to XXIV)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volume (please specify the book number), London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, →OCLC

12. transitiveTo ascertain the exact rate of the gain or loss of (a chronometer) as compared with true time.

present singular third person rates · participle present rating · participle past rated · past rated

1. obsoletetransitiveTo berate, scold.

   Go, rate thy minions, proud, insulting boy!

   c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]

   5 more examples

   Then rated they hym, and sayde: Thou arte hys disciple.

   1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, John

   Andronicus the Emperour, finding by chance in his pallace certaine principall men very earnestly disputing against Lapodius about one of our points of great importance, taunted and rated them very bitterly, and threatened if they gave not over, he would cause them to be cast into the river.

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 56, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

   So when he aroſe, he getteth him a grievous Crab-tree cudgel, and goes down into the Dungeon to them; and there firſt falls to Rateing of them, as if they were dogs: [...]

   1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC, page 114

   Conscience is a check to beginners in sin, reclaiming them from it, and rating them for it.

   a. 1692, Isaac Barrow, The Danger and Mischief of Delaying Repentance

   He beheld him, his head still muffled in the veil [...] couching, like a rated hound, upon the threshold of the chapel; but, apparently, without venturing to cross it: […] a man borne down and crushed to the earth by the burden of his inward feelings.

   1825 June 22, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Tales of the Crusaders. […], volume III (The Talisman), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, pages 103–104

present singular third person rates · participle present rating · participle past rated · past rated

1. UKdialectalobsoleteTo cause (hay, hemp, flax, etc) to decay (whether in an injurious way, or—as retting—in a useful way) by exposure to weather, particularly wetness.

   "Frodingham of Roberte Westabie, for rateing hempe in Skinner Beck, contrairie to paine." - Kirton-in-Lindsey Fine Roll, 1630.

   1889, Edward Peacock, A Glossary of Words Used in the Wapentakes of Manley and Corringham, Lincolnshire, page 433

   2 more examples

   From the "line pit" it [flax] is carried to the “RATING GROUND;" - a piece of unbroken aftergrass, where the sheaflets are untied, and the flax spread thin upon the grass. It is calculated, that a full crop ought to cover as much ground as it grew upon. Here it lies until it be sufficiently "rated;" namely, until the more woodlike substance of the stems will separate […]

   1796, Mr. Marshall (William), The Rural Economy of Yorkshire: Compromising the Management of Landed Estates and the Present Practice of Husbandry in the Agricultural Districts of that County, page 70

   […] hay when it is cocked either wette or greene, for then sure it is to be rated, and beinge rated looseth both the goode smell and goode taste; and likewise the colour, as yow may perceive by the blackenesse of the cocke on the outside; for if the[…]

   1857, Henry Best, Surtees Society (Durham, City of), Rural Economy in Yorkshire in 1641, Being the Farming and Account Books of Henry Best, of Elmsworth, in the East Riding of the County of York, page 34