Etimology
From Middle English rate, from Old French rate, from Medieval Latin rata, from Latin prō ratā parte (“according to a fixed part”), from ratus (“fixed”), from rērī (“think, deem, judge, estimate", originally "reckon, calculate”).
noun
rate (plural rates)
(obsolete) The worth of something; value. [15th–19th centuries]
The proportional relationship between one amount, value etc. and another. [from 15th c.]
Speed. [from 17th c.]
The relative speed of change or progress. [from 18th c.]
The price of (an individual) thing; cost. [from 16th c.]
A set price or charge for all examples of a given case, commodity, service etc. [from 16th c.]
A wage calculated in relation to a unit of time.
Any of various taxes, especially those levied by a local authority. [from 17th c.]
(nautical) A class into which ships were assigned based on condition, size etc.; by extension, rank.
(obsolete) Established portion or measure; fixed allowance; ration.
(obsolete) Order; arrangement.
(obsolete) Ratification; approval.
(horology) The gain or loss of a timepiece in a unit of time.
Examples
There shall no figure at such rate be set, / As that of true and faithfull Iuliet.
His natural parts were not of the first rate, but he had greatly improved them by a learned education.
In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%.
At the height of his powers, he was producing pictures at the rate of four a year.
The car was speeding down here at a hell of a rate.
Many of the horse could not march at that rate, nor come up soon enough.
The rate of production at the factory is skyrocketing.
He asked quite a rate to take me to the airport.
Postal rates here are low.
We pay an hourly rate of between $10 – $15 per hour depending on qualifications and experience.
I hardly have enough left every month to pay the rates.
This textbook is first-rate.
The one right feeble through the evil rate / Of food which in her duress she had found.
Thus sat they all around in seemly rate.
Tis offerd, Sir, 'boue the rate of CaesarIn other men, but in what I approueBeneath his merits: which I will not faileT'enforce at full to Pompey, nor forgetIn any time the gratitude of my seruice.
daily rate; hourly rate; etc.
Related words
hyponyms
birth rate
birthrate
book rate
call money rate
cyclic rate
exchange rate
failure rate
flat rate
hash rate
high-burden-rate
interest rate
key rate
policy interest rate
policy rate
rate of interest
unemployment rate
water-rate
verb
rate (third-person singular simple present rates, present participle rating, simple past and past participle rated)
(transitive) To assign or be assigned a particular rank or level.
(transitive) To evaluate or estimate the value of.
(transitive) To consider or regard.
(transitive) To deserve; to be worth.
(transitive) To determine the limits of safe functioning for a machine or electrical device.
(transitive, chiefly British) To evaluate a property's value for the purposes of local taxation.
(transitive, informal) To like; to think highly of.
(intransitive) To have position (in a certain class).
(intransitive) To have value or standing.
(transitive) To ratify.
To ascertain the exact rate of the gain or loss of (a chronometer) as compared with true time.
Examples
She is rated fourth in the country.
They rate his talents highly.
To rate a man by the nature of his companions is a rule frequent indeed, but not infallible.
He rated this book brilliant.
The view here hardly rates a mention in the travel guide.
Only two assistant district attorneys rate corner offices, and Mandelbaum wasn't one of them.
The transformer is rated at 10 watts.
The customers don't rate the new burgers.
She rates among the most excellent chefs in the world.
He rates as the best cyclist in the country.
This last performance of hers didn't rate very high with the judges.
to rate the truceThe spelling has been modernized.
The spelling has been modernized.
Related words
synonyms
(have position in a certain class): rank
Etimology
From Middle English raten (“to scold, chide”), from Old Norse hrata (“to refuse, reject, slight, find fault with”), from Proto-Germanic *hratōną (“to sway, shake”), from Proto-Indo-European *krad- (“to swing”). Cognate with Swedish rata (“to reject, refuse, find fault, slight”), Norwegian rata (“to reject, cast aside”), Old English hratian (“to rush, hasten”).
verb
rate (third-person singular simple present rates, present participle rating, simple past and past participle rated)
(transitive) To berate, scold.
Examples
Then rated they hym, and sayde: Thou arte hys disciple.
Go, rate thy minions, proud, insulting boy!
Andronicus the Emperour, finding by chance in his pallace certaine principall men very earnestly disputing against Lapodius about one of our points of great importance, taunted and rated them very bitterly, and threatened if they gave not over, he would cause them to be cast into the river.
So when he aroſe, he getteth him a grievous Crab-tree cudgel, and goes down into the Dungeon to them; and there firſt falls to Rateing of them, as if they were dogs: [...]
Conscience is a check to beginners in sin, reclaiming them from it, and rating them for it.
He beheld him, his head still muffled in the veil [...] couching, like a rated hound, upon the threshold of the chapel; but, apparently, without venturing to cross it: […] a man borne down and crushed to the earth by the burden of his inward feelings.
The successful monk, on the morrow morning, hastens home to Ely [...]. The successful monk, arriving at Ely, is rated for a goose and an owl; is ordered back to say that Elmset was the place meant.
Jyne took the baby, and began to rate the mother mildly for `walkin' seven mile ser soon', but Jyne's mother interposed with a recital of `wot I dun w'en Jun' `wur two days old.'