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From Middle Englishgraduat(e)(“(noun) a graduate of a university; (adjective) graduate, having graduated”, also used as the past participle of graduaten(“to graduate”)), borrowed from Medieval Latingraduātus(“graduated, graduate”), perfectpassiveparticiple of graduō(“to graduate”) (see -ate(adjective-forming suffix)), from gradus(“step”) + -ō(verb-forming suffix). The noun is originally derived within Latin from the adjective via substantivization, see -ate(noun-forming suffix). Sense 10 of the verb, relating to Japanese entertainment, is a semantic loan from Japanese卒業(sotsugyō).
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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.
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.
2022 November 7, Puja Bhattacharjee, “What drove 200 women to stab a gangster to death? Netflix series revisits crime that shocked India”, in the Guardian:
Yadav, born Bharat Kalicharan, was a petty thief who had graduated to bigger crimes, terrorising Kasturba Nagar, on the edge of the city of Nagpur, in Maharashtra, from the 1990s until his death.
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.
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.
Fans speculate that she was forced to graduate due to harassment and doxxing by stalkers and haters.
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 wasgraduated ”; compare certified. In the 19th century began to be used as an ergative verb in the intransitive form “the student graduatedfrom 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 “wasgraduatedfrom” 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).
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.