Rate | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Rāte, n.

noun

n. [Norm. & O. Fr. rate, Pr., Sp., Pg., & It. rata, Lat. rata (sc. pars); fr. ratus, reckoned, fixed by calculation, p. p. of reor, to reckon, to calculate.] 1. Established portion or measure; fixed allowance. Right feeble through the evil rate of food. Spencer. 2. Degree; standard; proportion; ratio; value; price; rank; movement, as fast or slow, or the like. Heretofore, the rate and standard of wit was different from what it is now-a-days. South. In this did his holiness and godliness appear above the rate and pitch of other men's, in that he was so infinitely merciful. Calamy. Many of the horse could not march at that rate, nor come up soon enough. Clarendon.

A tax or sum assessed by authority on property for public use, according to its income or value; as, parish rates: town rates: highway rates.
Manner; style. [Obs.]

Thus sat they all around in seemly rate. Spenser. 5. Ratification. [Obs.] Never without the rate Of all powers else. Chapman.

The change in the error of a clock in 24 hours; or the amount of its daily deviation in seconds from the number of seconds in 24 hours of true time. A clock which gains or loses two seconds in a day is said to have a gaining or losing rate of two seconds, whatever may be its actual error. Nichol.
(Naut.) The order or class of a ship, which is called first, second, third, &c., rate, according to its magnitude or force.

Rāte, v. t.

verbtransitive

[imp. & p. p. RATED; p. pr. & vb. n. RATING.]

Sense 1. To set a certain estimate on; to value at a certain price or degree.

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

You seem not high enough your joys to rate. Dryden.

Sense 2. To settle the relative scale, rank, or position of; as, to rate a ship; to rate a seaman.

Sense 3. To ratify. [Obs.] “To rate the truce they swore.” Chapman.

To rate a chronometer, to ascertain the exact rate of its gain or loss as compared with true time, for the sake of making a due allowance or computation dependent thereon.

Synonyms—To value; appraise; estimate; compute; reckon.

Rāte, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. 1. To be set or considered in a class; to have rank; as, the ship rates as a ship of the line. 2. To make an estimate.

Rāte, v. t.

verbtransitive

[Eng. rate, v. t., to value at a certain rate, to estimate. Cf. Sw. rata, to find fault, to blame, despise, to hold cheap, Icel. reita, to pluck, pull.] To chide with vehemence; to reprove; to scold; to censure violently.

Go, rate thy minions, proud, insulting boy. Shak.

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

Rāte, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. To use reproaches; to chide; to scold.