Word Direct Answers

What does "graduate" mean?

Graduate: To admit or elevate to a certain grade or degree; esp., in a college or university, to admit, at the close of the course, to an honorable standing defined by a diploma; as, he was graduated at Yale College.

Additional senses

  1. 2.To prepare gradually; to arrange, temper, or modify by degrees or to a certain degree; to determine the degrees of; as, to graduate the heat of an oven. Dyers advance and graduate their colors with salts. Browne.
  2. 3.(Chem.) To bring to a certain degree of consistency, by evaporation, as a fluid. Graduating engine, a dividing engine. See Dividing engine, under Dividing.
  3. 4.To pass by degrees; to change gradually; to shade off; as, sandstone which graduates into gneiss; carnelian sometimes graduates into quartz.
  4. 5.(Zoöl.) To taper, as the tail of certain birds.
  5. 6.To take a degree in a college or university; to become a graduate; to receive a diploma. He graduated at Oxford. Latham. He was brought to their bar and asked where he had graduated. Macaulay.
  6. 7.One who has received an academical or professional degree; one who has completed the prescribed course of study in any school or institution of learning.
  7. 8.A graduated cup, tube, or flask; a measuring glass used by apothecaries and chemists. See under Graduated.
  8. 9.Arrangei by successive steps or degrees; graduated. Beginning with the genus, passing through all the graduate and subordinate stages. Tatham.

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