Definition of "rate"

rate¹

/ɹeɪt/

noun
plural rates
1. (obsolete) The worth of something; value.
  Quotations
  There shall no figure at such rate be set, / As that of true and faithfull Iuliet.
  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, [Act V, scene iii]
  His natural parts were not of the first rate, but he had greatly improved them by a learned education.
  1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […]
2. The proportional relationship between one amount, value etc. and another.
  Quotations
  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%.
  2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8837, page 74
3. Speed.
  Quotations
  Many of the horse could not march at that rate, nor come up soon enough.
  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 Theater, published 1707
4. The relative speed of change or progress.
5. The price of (an individual) thing; cost.
6. A set price or charge for all examples of a given case, commodity, service etc.
7. A wage calculated in relation to a unit of time.
8. Any of various taxes, especially those levied by a local authority.
9. (nautical) A class into which ships were assigned based on condition, size etc.; by extension, rank.
10. (obsolete) Established portion or measure; fixed allowance; ration.
  Quotations
  The one right feeble through the evil rate / Of food which in her duress she had found.
  1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie
11. (obsolete) Order; arrangement.
  Quotations
  Thus sat they all around in seemly rate.
  1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie
12. (obsolete) Ratification; approval.
  Quotations
  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.
  c. 1610s, George Chapman, Caesar and Pompey
13. (horology) The gain or loss of a timepiece in a unit of time.
verb
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.
2. (transitive) To evaluate or estimate the value of.
  Quotations
  To rate a man by the nature of his companions is a rule frequent indeed, but not infallible.
  1661, Robert South, False Foundations Removed (sermon)
3. (transitive) To consider or regard.
4. (transitive) To deserve; to be worth.
  Quotations
  Only two assistant district attorneys rate corner offices, and Mandelbaum wasn't one of them.
  1955, Rex Stout, "When a Man Murders...", in Three Witnesses, October 1994 Bantam edition, page 101
5. (transitive) To determine the limits of safe functioning for a machine or electrical device.
6. (transitive, chiefly Britain) To evaluate a property's value for the purposes of local taxation.
7. (transitive, informal) To like; to think highly of.
8. (intransitive) To have position (in a certain class).
9. (intransitive) To have value or standing.
10. (transitive) To ratify.
  Quotations
  to rate the truceThe spelling has been modernized.
  , Homer, “(please specify |book=I to XXIV)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter; The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volumes (please specify the book number), London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843,
11. To ascertain the exact rate of the gain or loss of (a chronometer) as compared with true time.

rate²

/ɹeɪt/

verb
third-person singular simple present rates, present participle rating, simple past and past participle rated
1. (transitive) To berate, scold.
  Quotations
  Then rated they hym, and sayde: Thou arte hys disciple.
  1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], John ]
  Go, rate thy minions, proud, insulting boy!
  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, [Act II, scene ii]
  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.
  1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 56, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […]
  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: [...]
  1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […]; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, […], 1928, page 114
  Conscience is a check to beginners in sin, reclaiming them from it, and rating them for it.
  a. 1692, Isaac Barrow, The Danger and Mischief of Delaying Repentance
  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.
  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., pages 103–104
  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.
  1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “XV, Practical — Devotional”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, book II (The Ancient Monk)
  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.'
  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

Definition of "rate"

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rate2

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rate¹

rate²