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A graduate is someone who completed a school program.

(noun)

An example of a graduate is someone who completed a four-year college degree program.

To graduate is defined as to complete a school program.

(verb)

An example of graduate is when you wear a cap and gown and are handed your diploma.

Graduate means to mark a container with lines showing amounts of a liquid or solid.

(verb)

An example of graduate is to use a permanent pen to mark a glass container collecting rainwater so you can easily see how much there is.

The definition of graduate is something that is part of a higher degree program.

(adjective)

An example of graduate is a class that is taken to earn a Master’s degree.

See graduate in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

a person who has completed a course of study at a school or college and has received a degree or diploma
a flask, tube, or other container marked with a progressive series of degrees (lines or numbers or both) for measuring liquids or solids

Origin: < ML graduatus, pp. of graduare, to graduate < L gradus: see grade

transitive verb graduated, graduating

to give a degree or diploma to in recognition of the completion of a course of study at a school or college
Informal to become a graduate of: to graduate college
to mark (a flask, tube, gauge, etc.) with degrees for measuring
1. to arrange or classify into grades according to amount, size, etc.
2. to arrange in grades or stages: graduated income tax

intransitive verb

to become a graduate of a school or college
to change, esp. advance, by degrees

adjective

having been graduated from a school, college, etc.: a graduate engineer
☆ designating, of, for, or participating in instruction or research in various fields leading to degrees above the bachelor's: graduate courses, graduate students

Related Forms:

graduator noun

See graduate in American Heritage Dictionary 4

verb grad·u·at·ed, grad·u·at·ing, grad·u·ates

verb, intransitive

To be granted an academic degree or diploma: Two thirds of the entering freshmen stayed to graduate.
a. To change gradually or by degrees.
b. To advance to a new level of skill, achievement, or activity: After a summer of diving instruction, they had all graduated to back flips.

verb, transitive

a. To grant an academic degree or diploma to: The teachers hope to graduate her this spring.
b. Usage Problem To receive an academic degree from.
To arrange or divide into categories, steps, or grades.
To divide into marked intervals, especially for use in measurement.

noun (-ĭt)

One who has received an academic degree or diploma.
A graduated container, such as a cylinder or beaker.

adjective (-ĭt)

Possessing an academic degree or diploma.
Of, intended for, or relating to studies beyond a bachelor's degree: graduate courses.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English graduaten, to confer a degree

Origin: , from Medieval Latin graduārī, graduāt-, to take a degree

Origin: , from Latin gradus, step; see grade

Related Forms:

gradˈu·aˌtor noun

Usage Note: The verb graduate has denoted the action of conferring an academic degree or diploma since at least 1421. Accordingly, the action of receiving a degree should be expressed in the passive, as in She was graduated from Yale in 1998. This use is still current, if old-fashioned, and is acceptable to 78 percent of the Usage Panel. In general usage, however, it has largely yielded to the much more recent active pattern (first attested in 1807): She graduated from Yale in 1998. Eighty-nine percent of the Panel accepts this use. It has the advantage of ascribing the accomplishment to the student, rather than to the institution, which is usually appropriate in discussions of individual students. When the institution's responsibility is emphasized, however, the older pattern may still be recommended. A sentence such as The university graduated more computer science majors in 1997 than in the entire previous decade stresses the university's accomplishment, say, of its computer science program. On the other hand, the sentence More computer science majors graduated in 1997 than in the entire previous decade implies that the class of 1997 was in some way a remarkable group. • The Usage Panel feels quite differently about the use of graduate to mean “to receive a degree from,” as in She graduated Yale in 1998. Seventy-seven percent object to this usage.

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