Grade

Grade
a harsh scraping or cutting; a grating. The grade of hatchets fiercely thrown. On wigwam log, and tree, and stone. (Whittier)
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., 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.
a graded ascending, descending, or level portion of a road; a gradient.
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. 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 Equate. Grade crossing, a crossing at grade.
Origin: f. Grade, L. Gradus step, pace, grade, from gradi to step, go. Cf. Congress, degree, Gradus.
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. To cross with some better breed; to improve the blood of.
Origin: Graded; grading.