graduate

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
graduate

▶noun /ˈgradʒʊət, -djʊət/ a person who has been awarded a first academic degree, or (N. Amer.) a high-school diploma. ▶verb /ˈgradʒʊeɪt, -djʊeɪt/ 

• 1 successfully complete a degree, course, or (N. Amer.) high school.

  ■ N. Amer. confer a degree or other academic qualification on.

• 2 (graduate to) move up to (something more advanced).

• 3 arrange or mark out in gradations.

• 4 change gradually.

– derivatives
graduation noun.

– origin ME: from med. L. graduat- ‘graduated’, from graduare ‘take a degree’, from L. gradus ‘degree, step’.