Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Grade
Grade
(grād)
, Noun.
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
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
; a grade of twenty feet per mile, or of 1 in 264. grade
(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
,Verb.
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.
Webster 1828 Edition
Grade
GRADE
,Noun.
1.
A degree or rank in order or dignity, civil,military or ecclesiastical. While questions, periods, and grades and privileges are never once formally discussed.
2.
A step or degree in any ascending series; as crimes of every grade. When we come to examine the intermediate grades.