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.
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.