rate

Noun

rate (countable and uncountable, plural rates)

1. (obsolete) The worth of something; value. [15th–19th centuries]
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:

     There shall no figure at such rate be set, / As that of true and faithfull Iuliet.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:

     His natural parts were not of the first rate, but he had greatly improved them by a learned education.

2. The proportional relationship between one amount, value etc. and another. [from 15th c.]
   • 1979 December 29, Cindy Stein, “Queers in America's Living Rooms”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 23, page 10:

     Negative responses to this program were being received by the office of the National Gay Task Force at the rate of ten to one.

   • 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:

     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.

3. Speed. [from 17th c.]

   The car was speeding down here at a hell of a rate.

   • 1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, “(please specify |book=I to XVI)”, in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the [Sheldonian] Theater, published 1707, →OCLC:

     Many of the horse could not march at that rate, nor come up soon enough.

4. The relative speed of change or progress. [from 18th c.]

   The rate of production at the factory is skyrocketing.

5. The price of (an individual) thing; cost. [from 16th c.]

   He asked quite a rate to take me to the airport.

6. A set price or charge for all examples of a given case, commodity, service etc. [from 16th c.]

   Postal rates here are low.

7. A wage calculated in relation to a unit of time.

   We pay an hourly rate of between $10 – $15 per hour depending on qualifications and experience.

8. Any of various taxes, especially those levied by a local authority. [from 17th c.]

   I hardly have enough left every month to pay the rates.

9. (nautical) A class into which ships were assigned based on condition, size etc.; by extension, rank.

   This textbook is first-rate.

10. (obsolete) Established portion or measure; fixed allowance; ration.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

      The one right feeble through the evil rate / Of food which in her duress she had found.

11. (obsolete, uncountable) Order; arrangement.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

      Thus sat they all around in seemly rate.

12. (obsolete) Ratification; approval.
    • c. 1610s, George Chapman, Caesar and Pompey

      Tis offerd, Sir, 'boue the rate of Caesar
      In other men, but in what I approue
      Beneath his merits: which I will not faile
      T'enforce at full to Pompey, nor forget
      In any time the gratitude of my seruice.

13. (horology) The gain or loss of a timepiece in a unit of time.

    daily rate; hourly rate; etc.

Verb

rate (third-person singular simple present rates, present participle rating, simple past and past participle rated)

1. (transitive) To assign or be assigned a particular rank or level.

   She is rated fourth in the country.

2. (transitive) To evaluate or estimate the value of.

   They rate his talents highly.

   • 1661, Robert South, False Foundations Removed (sermon)

     To rate a man by the nature of his companions is a rule frequent indeed, but not infallible.

3. (transitive) To consider or regard.

   He rated this book brilliant.

4. (transitive) To deserve; to be worth.

   The view here hardly rates a mention in the travel guide.

   • 1955, Rex Stout, "When a Man Murders...", in Three Witnesses, October 1994 Bantam edition, →ISBN, page 101:

     Only two assistant district attorneys rate corner offices, and Mandelbaum wasn't one of them.

   • 1987 December 6, Paul Vincent Leone, “Too, Too Outrageous!”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 21, page 7:

     A few things DO work in Too Outrageous!, though I am not sure they rate the price of admission.

5. (transitive) To determine the limits of safe functioning for a machine or electrical device.

   The transformer is rated at 10 watts.

6. (transitive, chiefly British) To evaluate a property's value for the purposes of local taxation.
7. (transitive, informal) To like; to think highly of.

   The customers don't rate the new burgers.

8. (intransitive) To have position (in a certain class).

   She rates among the most excellent chefs in the world.

   He rates as the best cyclist in the country.

9. (intransitive) To have value or standing.

   This last performance of hers didn't rate very high with the judges.

10. (transitive) To ratify.
    • [1611?], Homer, “(please specify |book=I to XXIV)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volume (please specify the book number), London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, →OCLC:

      to rate the truce

      The spelling has been modernized.

11. To ascertain the exact rate of the gain or loss of (a chronometer) as compared with true time.

Verb

rate (third-person singular simple present rates, present participle rating, simple past and past participle rated)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To berate, scold.
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, John:

     Then rated they hym, and sayde: Thou arte hys disciple.

   • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

     Go, rate thy minions, proud, insulting boy!

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 56, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC, page 114:

     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: [...]

   • a. 1692, Isaac Barrow, The Danger and Mischief of Delaying Repentance:

     Conscience is a check to beginners in sin, reclaiming them from it, and rating them for it.

   • 1825 June 22, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Tales of the Crusaders. […], volume III (The Talisman), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, pages 103–104:

     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.

   • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “XV, Practical — Devotional”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):

     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.

   • 1894, Stanley John Weyman, “III. Man and Wife”, in The Man in Black:

     The voice of someone rating the landlord in no measured terms became audible, the noise growing louder as the speaker mounted the stairs.

   • 1902, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Bush Studies (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 71:

     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' (John) `wur two days old.'

Derived terms

• dødsrate
• fødselsrate

Conjugation