graduate: Meaning and Definition of

grad•u•ate

1. a person who has received a degree or diploma on completing a course of study, as in a university, college, or school.
2. a student who holds the bachelor's or the first professional degree and is studying for an advanced degree.
3. a cylindrical or tapering graduated container, used for measuring.

1. of, pertaining to, or involved in academic study beyond the first or bachelor's degree: graduate courses in business; a graduate student.
2. having an academic degree or diploma: a graduate engineer.

1. to receive a degree or diploma on completing a course of study (often fol. by from): She graduated from college in 1985.
2. to pass by degrees; change gradually.

1. 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.
2. to receive a degree or diploma from: She graduated college in 1950.
3. to arrange in grades or gradations; establish gradation in.
4. to divide into or mark with degrees or other divisions, as the scale of a thermometer.