Definition of grade

• n. - 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.
• n. - 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.
• n. - A graded ascending, descending, or level portion of a road; a gradient.
• n. - 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.
• v. t. - To arrange in order, steps, or degrees, according to size, quality, rank, etc.
• v. t. - To reduce to a level, or to an evenly progressive ascent, as the line of a canal or road.
• v. t. - To cross with some better breed; to improve the blood of.
• n. - A harsh scraping or cutting; a grating.