qualified

1. 1
   adjective

   Having the training, skills, and other requirements needed for a particular position or task.

   After years of training, she is finally qualified to operate the equipment.

   Employers want workers who are qualified for the specific tasks involved.

   Similartrained, certified, competent, skilled, licensed

   Oppositeunqualified, untrained, incompetent, unskilled

   Note

   Competence comes in degrees here: one candidate can be more qualified than another, and the most qualified one gets the post. Before a noun it takes for (qualified for a specialized classification); before a verb it takes to (qualified to operate). Be careful with a qualified opinion, which can mean an expert's view or carry the hedged, conditional meaning. An attached "assuming…" usually tells you which is meant.

2. 2
   adjective

   Made less than absolute by attached conditions or reservations; not unconditional.

   His endorsement was qualified by several concerns about the budget.

   The review offered qualified praise, noting both strengths and flaws.

   Similarconditional, limited, guarded, partial, restricted

   Oppositeunqualified, unconditional, unreserved, wholehearted

   Note

   Here the word hedges rather than certifies. It echoes the verb qualify in its sense of attaching conditions to a claim. It sits most naturally before nouns of approval or judgment, such as qualified praise, a qualified green light or a qualified opinion. It grants the thing while marking its limits: the yes is real, but it comes with a "but" or an "assuming" attached.

3. 3
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of qualify.

   The team qualified for the championship after a strong season.

   Several runners qualified during yesterday's trial heats.

   Note

   Two constructions sit behind the form. It can be intransitive, as in the team qualified for the championship, or transitive, as in the course qualified her to teach. The passive is where the adjectives come from: she was qualified to teach blurs into the 'trained and eligible' adjective. A grading word like very or more marks the adjective, because the verb form does not grade.

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