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.-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.-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.-to arrange in order, steps, or degrees, according to size, quality, rank, etc.-to reduce to a level, or to an evenly progressive ascent, as the line of a canal or road.-to cross with some better breed; to improve the blood of.-a harsh scraping or cutting; a grating.