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. (Stock Breeding) To cross with
some better breed; to improve the blood of.
Grade (?), n. [F. grade, L. gradus step, pace, grade, from gradi to step, go. Cf.
Congress, Degree, Gradus.]
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. In a railroad
or highway: (a) 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. (b) A graded ascending, descending,
or level portion of a
road; a gradient.
3. (Stock Breeding) 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.
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.
Hear it pronounced