of, relating to, or involved in academic study beyond the first or bachelor's degree: graduate courses in business; a graduate student.
having an academic degree or diploma: a graduate engineer.
verb (used without object),grad·u·at·ed,grad·u·at·ing.
to receive a degree or diploma on completing a course of study (often followed by from): She graduated from college in 1985.
to pass by degrees; change gradually.
verb (used with object),grad·u·at·ed,grad·u·at·ing.
to confer a degree upon, or to grant a diploma to, at the close of a course of study, as in a university, college, or school: Cornell graduated eighty students with honors.
Informal. to receive a degree or diploma from: She graduated college in 1950.
to arrange in grades or gradations; establish gradation in.
to divide into or mark with degrees or other divisions, as the scale of a thermometer.
Origin of graduate
1375–1425;late Middle English < Medieval Latingraduātus (past participle of graduāre), equivalent to grad(us) grade, step + -u- thematic vowel + -ātus-ate1
Related formsgrad·u·a·tor, nounnon·grad·u·ate, nounsu·per·grad·u·ate, nounun·grad·u·at·ing, adjective
Usage note
In the sense “to receive a degree or diploma” graduate followed by from is the most common construction today: Her daughter graduated from Yale in 1981. The passive form was graduated from, formerly insisted upon as the only correct pattern, has decreased in use and occurs infrequently today: My husband was graduated from West Point last year. Even though it is condemned by some as nonstandard, the use of graduate as a transitive verb meaning “to receive a degree or diploma from” is increasing in frequency in both speech and writing: The twins graduated high school in 1974.
early 15c., "to confer a university degree upon," from Medieval Latin graduatus (see graduate (n.)). Intransitive sense from 1807. Related: Graduated; graduating.
graduate
n.
early 15c., "one who holds a degree" (with man; as a stand-alone noun from mid-15c.), from Medieval Latin graduatus, past participle of graduari "to take a degree," from Latin gradus "step, grade" (see grade). As an adjective, from late 15c.
