graduate
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Etymology
From Latin graduātus (“graduated”), from gradus (“step”). Sense 10 of the verb, relating to Japanese entertainment, is a semantic loan from Japanese 卒業 (sotsugyō).
Pronunciation
Noun
graduate (plural graduates)
- 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.
- (US, Canada) A person who is recognized by a high school as having completed the requirements of a course of study at the school.
- (Philippines) A person who is recognized as having completed any level of education.
- A graduated (marked) cup or other container, thus fit for measuring.
Antonyms
Coordinate terms
- (person recognized by school): graduand, undergraduate, postgraduate
Translations
from a university
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US: from a high school
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Adjective
graduate (comparative more graduate, superlative most graduate)
Translations
holding an academic degree — see also postgraduate
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relating to an academic degree
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Verb
graduate (third-person singular simple present graduates, present participle graduating, simple past and past participle graduated)
- (intransitive, ergative) To be recognized by a school or university as having completed the requirements of a degree studied at the institution.
- 2019 February 19, Jeremy Pelzer, “Youngstown School Board member Dario Hunter seeks Green Party presidential nomination”, in cleveland.com:
- After graduating from Princeton University, he earned a law degree in Canada, then worked as an environmental lawyer in Israel before settling on the south side of Youngstown.
- The man graduated in 1967.
- Trisha graduated from college.
- (transitive, proscribed) To be certified as having earned a degree from; to graduate from (an institution).
- Trisha graduated college.
- (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.
- (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.
- (intransitive) To change gradually.
- 1852, William Macgillivray, A history of British birds, indigenous and migratory, page 573:
- 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.
- sandstone which graduates into gneiss; carnelian sometimes graduates into quartz
- 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
- 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:
- Dyers, who advance and graduate their colours with salts.
- (chemistry) To bring to a certain degree of consistency, by evaporation, as a fluid.
- (intransitive) To taper, as the tail of certain birds.
- (transitive, software engineering) To approve (a feature) for general release.
- We have graduated the new machine-learning features and will roll them out tomorrow.
- (intransitive, Japanese entertainment) 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.
Usage notes
In the sense “to complete studies”, usage has shifted from the 19th century through the 21st century.[1] Originally (from the 16th century) used transitively as “the school graduated the student” or passively as “the student was graduated [from the school, by the school]”; compare certified. In the 19th century began to be used as an ergative verb in the intransitive form “the student graduated from school”, “the student graduated”; the ergative occurs in English for change of state (compare break, melt), and reverses the subject compared to the transitive form: the student is the subject, not the school. This was originally proscribed, but was generally accepted by mid-20th century, and is now the preferred usage. The form “was graduated from” is a fossil, seen primarily in wedding invitations and obituaries, though the active form “the school graduated the student” is still in use. A further shift started mid-20th century, using the verb transitively with student subject, as in “the student graduated college” (note no “from”; compare completed). This has been used in major periodicals from the 1990s, but remains proscribed into the 21st century, being considered at best informal, at worst uneducated.
Note that there are thus two transitive forms, with the subject and object switching between the school and the student: “I graduated Indiana University” (newer, proscribed) vs. “Indiana University graduated me” (older, somewhat old-fashioned).
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
to be recognized by a university as having completed the requirements of a degree
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US: to be recognized by a high school as having completed the requirements of a course of study
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to become a graduate at a ceremony
transitive: to certify (a student) as having earned a degree
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to mark a scale on (something) so it can be used for measuring
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
References
- Garner's Modern American Usage, Bryan Garner, 2009, pp. 399–400
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