The Collaborative International Dictionary
Grade \Grade\ (gr[=a]d), n. [F. grade, L. gradus step, pace, grade, from gradi to step, go. Cf. Congress, Degree, Gradus.]
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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. -
In a railroad or highway:
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.
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(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.
Wiktionary
n. (context chiefly US English) An at-grade crossing between a railroad line and an ordinary road, with tracks and road at the same level.
WordNet
n. intersection of a railway and a road on the same level; barriers close road when trains pass [syn: level crossing]
Usage examples of "grade crossing".
We set up roadblocks at every intersection, railroad grade crossing, tollgate, highway exit, and dead-end street.
I had to know that taking it across a grade crossing wouldn't put it out of action.
Steel rumbled on steel, and the mournful whistle sounded at every grade crossing.
It crossed a bridge, whistled at a grade crossing, steamed into the Union Station.