E·quate v. t. [imp. & p. p. Equated; p. pr. & vb. n. Equating.]  To make equal; to reduce to an average; to make such an allowance or correction in as will reduce to a common standard of comparison; to reduce to mean time or motion; as, to equate payments; to equate lines of railroad for grades or curves; equated distances.
    Palgrave gives both scrolle and scrowe and equates both to F[rench] rolle.   --Skeat (Etymol. Dict. ).
 Equating for grades Railroad Engin., adding to the measured distance one mile for each twenty feet of ascent.
 Equating for curves, adding half a mile for each 360 degrees of curvature.

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 Grade n.
 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.