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.

-- Webster's unabridged 1913