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Entry 6 senses · 2 variants Webster, 1913

Grade

/(grād)/ · IPA /[ɡɹeɪd]/
01 n. A step or degree in any series, rank, quality, order; relative position or standing; as, grades of military rank; crimes of every grade; gr…
  1. 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. 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. 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.
02 v. t. To arrange in order, steps, or degrees, according to size, quality, rank, etc.
imp. & p. p. Graded; p. pr. & vb. n. Grading
  1. 1.
    To arrange in order, steps, or degrees, according to size, quality, rank, etc.
  2. 2.
    To reduce to a level, or to an evenly progressive ascent, as the line of a canal or road.
  3. 3.
    To cross with some better breed; to improve the blood of.(Stock Breeding)