Grade /(grād)/

Grade

n.
  1. A step or degree in any series, rank, quality, order; relative position or standing; as, grades of military rank; crimes of every grade; grades of flour.
    They also appointed and removed, at their own pleasure, teachers of every grade.
    — Buckle.
  2. The rate of ascent or descent; gradient; deviation from a level surface to an inclined plane; -- usually stated as so many feet per mile, or as one foot rise or fall in so many of horizontal distance; as, a heavy grade; a grade of twenty feet per mile, or of 1 in 264. In a railroad or highway
  3. The result of crossing a native stock with some better breed. If the crossbreed have more than three fourths of the better blood, it is called high grade. (Stock Breeding)

Phrases & Compounds
At grade
on the same level; -- said of the crossing of a railroad with another railroad or a highway, when they are on the same level at the point of crossing.
Down grade
a descent, as on a graded railroad.
Up grade
an ascent, as on a graded railroad.
Equating for grades
See under Equate.
Grade crossing
a crossing at grade.

Grade

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Graded; p. pr. & vb. n. Grading

  1. To arrange in order, steps, or degrees, according to size, quality, rank, etc.
  2. To reduce to a level, or to an evenly progressive ascent, as the line of a canal or road.
  3. To cross with some better breed; to improve the blood of. (Stock Breeding)