make the grade
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Even this throughway soon couldn’t handle the traffic between Southern and Central California, and the incline was so dangerous that mule teams had to be summoned to rescue underpowered cars that couldn’t make the grade.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026
Coltin Stidham wanted to be a pilot, but his eyesight didn’t make the grade.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 26, 2026
Anyone wanting to join the army has to pass a tough medical – people with heart problems, back problems, hearing or vision problems, among other things, will struggle to make the grade.
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2024
The class’s first video to make the grade showed scenes from campus edited together.
From New York Times ● Apr. 4, 2023
Each train, in order to make the grade and the blockade, was straining the cylinders.
From The Nerve of Foley And Other Railroad Stories by Frank H. (Frank Hamilton) Spearman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
