make the grade

Probably from a railway train climbing a length of track sloping uphill (a grade).

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make the grade (third-person singular simple present makes the grade, present participle making the grade, simple past and past participle made the grade)

1. (idiomatic) To prove satisfactory; to be successful or worthy of merit.
   • 1938 October 17, “Tarnished Plate”, in Time:

     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.

   • 1967, Beatles, A Day In The Life:

     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 laugh

   • 2009 March 19, Margaret Wente, “Please stop nannying us, Toronto!”, in Globe and Mail, Canada, page A13:

     In the end, only eight plucky contestants made the grade.

   • 2020 November 1, Alan Young, “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.”, in The Scotsman‎:

• cut it, cut the mustard, make the cut, measure up, pass muster

• up to par
• up to snuff