— graduator , n.
n. , adj. /graj"ooh it, -ayt'/ ; v. /graj"ooh ayt'/ , n., adj., v., graduated, graduating .
n.
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.
adj.
4. of, pertaining to, or involved in academic study beyond the first or bachelor's degree: graduate courses in business; a graduate student.
5. having an academic degree or diploma: a graduate engineer.
v.i.
6. to receive a degree or diploma on completing a course of study (often fol. by from ): She graduated from college in 1985.
7. to pass by degrees; change gradually.
v.t.
8. 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.
9. Informal. to receive a degree or diploma from: She graduated college in 1950.
10. to arrange in grades or gradations; establish gradation in.
11. to divide into or mark with degrees or other divisions, as the scale of a thermometer.
[ 1375-1425; late ME graduatus (ptp. of graduare ), equiv. to grad ( us ) GRADE, step + -u- thematic vowel + -atus -ATE 1 ]
Usage . In the sense "to receive a degree or diploma" GRADUATE followed by FROM is the most common construction today: Her daughter graduated from Yale in 1981. The passive form WAS GRADUATED FROM, formerly insisted upon as the only correct pattern, has decreased in use and occurs infrequently today: My husband was graduated from West Point last year.
Even though it is condemned by some as nonstandard, the use of GRADUATE as a transitive verb meaning "to receive a degree or diploma from" is increasing in frequency in both speech and writing: The twins graduated high school in 1974.