Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To pass imperceptibly from one degree, shade, or tone to another.
  • intransitive verb To cause to pass imperceptibly from one degree, shade, or tone to another.
  • intransitive verb To arrange in or according to grades.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To cause to pass by insensible degrees, as from one tint of color, or from one light or dark tone, to another.
  • To effect gradation, as of color.
  • Arranged serially according to size, as the whorls of a gastropod shell.
  • In chem., to bring (a solution) to a desired degree of concentration.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To grade or arrange (parts in a whole, colors in painting, etc.), so that they shall harmonize.
  • transitive verb (Chem.) To bring to a certain strength or grade of concentration.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To change imperceptibly from one gradation of tone etc. to another
  • verb To arrange in order of grades
  • verb chemistry To bring to a certain strength or grade of concentration.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb arrange according to grades
  • verb pass imperceptibly from one degree, shade, or tone into another

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Back-formation from gradation.]

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Examples

  • MR. MCCURRY: We kind of gradate the way we do this and we're at the senior advisers recommend veto level at this point.

    Press Briefing By Mike Mccurry ITY National Archives 1997

  • Well, lets see: tons of post-gradate education; years of experience as a park ranger and biology teacher; extensive familiarity with hundreds of problematic exotic species; an outdoors nut; tough as nails; tons of public speaking experience.

    Host Needed for Outdoor TV Show 2009

  • Well, lets see: tons of post-gradate education; years of experience as a park ranger and biology teacher; extensive familiarity with hundreds of problematic exotic species; an outdoors nut; tough as nails; tons of public speaking experience.

    Host Needed for Outdoor TV Show 2009

  • Newton observed that the hues gradate smoothly into each other.

    The Color Wheel, Part 1 James Gurney 2010

  • My question is, do they gradate at equal strengths along the way?

    James Perry Wilson’s Dioramas, Part 2 James Gurney 2009

  • I know that the tones would appear to gradate from white to black, if I started at yellow, and made my way to violet.

    James Perry Wilson’s Dioramas, Part 2 James Gurney 2009

  • The reflected colors softly gradate from greens on the left to reds on the right.

    Croquet Balls James Gurney 2008

  • The reflected colors softly gradate from greens on the left to reds on the right.

    Archive 2008-07-01 James Gurney 2008

  • My wife (Virginia) and I met at the University of Michigan, spent the first year of our marriage in Belfast, Northern Ireland, spent a year in North Carolina, and started having children when I was in gradate school at Princeton.

    Robert Hellenga biography 2006

  • I applied to the International Women's Club in Sofia to provide a transition home for orphans once they gradate.

    Archive 2006-02-01 Matthew Wahlgren 2006

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