grad·u·ate • n. / ˈgrajoōit/ 1. a person who has successfully completed a course of study or training, esp. a person who has been awarded an undergraduate academic degree. ∎  a person who has received a high school diploma: she is 19, a graduate of Lincoln High.2. a graduated cup, tube, flask, or measuring glass, used esp. by chemists and pharmacists.• v. / ˈgrajoōˌāt/ 1. [intr.] successfully complete an academic degree, course of training, or high school: I graduated from West Point in 1965. ∎  [tr.] inf. receive an academic degree from: she graduated college in 1970. ∎  [tr.] 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. [tr.] arrange in a series or according to a scale: [as adj.] (graduated) a graduated tax. ∎  mark out (an instrument or container) in degrees or other proportionate divisions: the stem was graduated with marks for each hour | [as adj.] graduated cylinders.3. [tr.] change (something, typically color or shade) gradually or step by step: the color is graduated from the middle of the frame to the top.• adj. / ˈgrajoōit/ relating to graduate school education: the graduate faculty. ∎  having graduated from a school or academic program: a graduate electrical engineer.ORIGIN: late Middle English: from medieval Latin graduat- ‘graduated,’ from graduare ‘take a degree,’ from Latin gradus ‘degree, step.’