graduate

Noun

graduate (plural graduates)

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. (Canada, Philippines, US) A 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.
3. A graduated (marked) cup or other container, thus fit for measuring.

Adjective

graduate (comparative more graduate, superlative most graduate)

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

Verb

UK/ˈɡɹædjueɪt/US/ˈɡɹæd͡ʒueɪt/

graduate (third-person singular simple present graduates, present participle graduating, simple past and past participle graduated)

1. (ergative, intransitive) To be recognized by a school or university as having completed the requirements of a degree studied at the institution.
   • The man graduated in 1967.
   • Trisha graduated from college.
2. (proscribed, transitive) To be certified as having earned a degree from; to graduate from (an institution).
   • Trisha graduated college.
3. (transitive) To certify (a student) as having earned a degree
   • Indiana University graduated the student.
   • The college graduated him as soon as he was no longer eligible to play under NCAA rules.
4. (transitive) 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.
5. (intransitive) To change gradually.
   • 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
   • 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. To bring to a certain degree of consistency, by evaporation, as a fluid.
8. (intransitive) To taper, as the tail of certain birds.
9. (transitive) To approve (a feature) for general release.
   • We have graduated the new machine-learning features and will roll them out tomorrow.
10. (Japanese, intransitive) 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.
    • Fans speculate that she was forced to graduate due to harassment and doxxing by stalkers and haters.