graduate

 

noun

Pronunciation: /ˈgradʒʊət, -djʊət/
  • a person who has successfully completed a course of study or training, especially a person who has been awarded an undergraduate or first academic degree.
  • North American a person who has received a high-school diploma.

verb

Pronunciation: /ˈgradʒʊeɪt, -djʊeɪt/
  • 1 [no object] successfully complete an academic degree, course of training, or (North American) high school: he graduated from Glasgow University in 1990
  • [with object] North American confer a degree or other academic qualification on: the school graduated more than one hundred arts majors in its first year
  • (graduate to) move up to (a more advanced level or position): he started with motorbikes but now he’s graduated to his first car
  • 2 [with object] arrange in a series or according to a scale: (as adjective graduated) a graduated tax
  • mark out (an instrument or container) in degrees or other proportionate gradations: the stem was graduated with marks for each hour
  • 3 [with object] change (something, typically colour or shade) gradually or step by step: the colour is graduated from the middle of the frame to the top

Origin:

late Middle English: from medieval Latin graduat- 'graduated', from graduare 'take a degree', from Latin gradus 'degree, step'