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.


 grade crossing
      n : intersection of a railway and a road on the same level;
          barriers close road when trains pass [syn: {level
          crossing]