GRADE

Definitions

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. In a railroad or highway:
3. 3. 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.
4. 4. A graded ascending, descending, or level portion of a road; a gradient.
5. 5. 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.