make the grade
verbEtymology Probably from a railway train climbing a length of track sloping uphill (a grade).
1
Idiomatic To prove satisfactory; to be successful or worthy of merit.
- Near-synonym: fit the bill
- In 1916 the famed Van Sweringen brothers bought their first railroad—the Nickel Plate. . . . This year, as usual, the tarnished Nickel Plate cannot make the grade. In first seven months it lost $2,003,779.1938 October 17, “Tarnished Plate”, in TIME, archived from the original on 26 Aug 2010:
3 more examples
- I read the news today, oh boy About a lucky man who made the grade And though the news was rather sad Well, I just had to laugh1967, Beatles, A Day In The Life:
- In the end, only eight plucky contestants made the grade.2009 March 19, Margaret Wente, “Please stop nannying us, Toronto!”, in Globe and Mail, Canada, page A13:
- He quit the role after You Only Live Twice, frustrated by the repetitive plots, but was enticed back after his successor George Lazenby failed to make the grade.2020 November 1, Alan Young, “Sean Connery obituary: From delivering milk in Fountainbridge to the definitive James Bond”, in The Scotsman, archived from the original on 19 Feb 2025:
- Related terms
- up to par, up to snuff