1889 Pittsburg (Pa.) Disp. 19 May 10/6 The world still lieth in wickedness, and..it has down-graded for the last hundred years.

1892 Proc. Somersetshire Archæol. & Nat. Hist. Soc. 1891 37 55 This [two-days' feast or revel] has also downgraded in the present day to one gingerbread stall, set up for a couple of days.

1892 [implied in: Hutchinson (Kansas) News 20 July 4/5 (advt.) The downgrading of prices and giving Better Goods for the Same Money or the Same Goods for Less Money than elsewhere. (at downgrading n. 1)].

1904 Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 3 Nov. 6/4 The United Fruit Company have been down-grading and rejecting fruit shipped at the siding for Port Antonio.

1953 A. Baron Human Kind 97 There was a medical examination at which he was down-graded.

1969 Times 24 Feb. 12/5 A scientific committee..recommended that the manned flight activities should be downgraded because they ‘exaggerated’ one aspect of space activity.

2015 New Yorker 29 June 26/3 Proposition 47, which downgraded minor drug and property crimes to misdemeanors.

1931 Times 4 Apr. 6/6 (heading) Downgraded civil servants.

1975 Yuma (Arizona) Daily Sun 30 Oct. 1/2 Local area residents..congregate in the downtown area because of downgraded [recreational] facilities .

2011 Herald-Times (Bloomington, Indiana) 8 Nov. a7/4 [Recycled] newsprint..can only be reused in a downgraded form such as toilet paper.

1838 Baltimore Patriot & Commerc. Gaz. 7 Sept. 2/1 The Engineer..used all means in his power to stop the engine, but owing to the fact of having but a small quantity of steam on, and the train was going down grade he was unable to do so.

1867 North Amer. & U.S. Gaz. (Philadelphia) 4 Jan. I stood on the left hand side of the driver at Twenty-third and Market streets; the car was going down grade.

1901 S. Merwin & H. K. Webster Calumet ‘K’ xi. 199 They'd all strike like a freight train rolling down grade.

1939 Fortune Nov. 56/1 Impelled by gravity, the released car rolls downgrade.

1970 G. C. Means in S. Terkel Hard Times iii. 249 Things had been going downgrade—worse, worse, worse.

2014 Hutchinson (Kansas) News 2 Nov. a4/1 A trainload of oil parked on a shortline track came loose and rolled downgrade into a Canadian community.

1847 Daily Albany (N.Y.) Argus 1 Nov. The passenger train..was proceeding to Spencer station when the collision took place, the passenger train running on a down grade and the freight train on an up grade.

1872 ‘M. Twain’ Roughing It xvii. 141 A ‘down grade’, a flying coach, a fragrant pipe and a contented heart—these make happiness.

1878 B. F. Taylor Between Gates 13 The down grade has begun. Let the engines take breath.

1940 Railroad Mag. Apr. 50/2 An arrangement for preventing serious wrecks by sidetracking runaway trains, cars, or locomotives on a down grade.

1967 Man. Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets & Highways (Oregon State Highway Comm.) i. 93 The Down Grade Next —— Miles sign should be used on downgrades of 6 percent or more which are more than one mile long.

2015 Cumberland (Maryland) Times-News (Nexis) 2 June 4 a/1 Excessive vehicular speed is common in the northbound direction due to the steep downgrade on Valley Street.

1857 Daily Cleveland (Ohio) Herald 9 Oct. His bad management has sent him on the down grade to obscurity.

1872 Newton Kansan 19 Sept. 4/3 Greeleyism has struck the down grade.

1895 Westm. Gaz. 19 Apr. 3/2 A study in the down-grade of a village girl from seduction..to prostitution.

1901 G. B. Shaw in Candid Friend 11 May 57/2 To be on the down grade from the haute bourgeoisie and the landed gentry.

1953 W. S. Burroughs Let. July (1993) 173 As a matter of fact the whole region is on the down grade.

2003 W. Thabit How East N.Y. became Ghetto iv. 64 Livonia Avenue, another shopping street in the past..was also on the downgrade.

1935 Rev. Econ. Statistics 17 9/2 The process of investment and the corresponding process of credit contraction in down-grades can never..be fully grasped in its importance and consequences.

1951 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 57 273/1 Employees..who..stated that they will accept a downgrade, since they will still earn more than they would at the starting rate in an outside plan.

1968 Bull. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics No. 1607. 21 ‘Income security’ plan established which guarantees workers their rate of pay in the event of a downgrade.

1993 Coloradoan (Fort Collins) 2 Oct. b1/3 They only consider downgrades when properties don't maintain their standards.

2011 Daily Tel. 13 July 1/3 The downgrade means Ireland joins Portugal and Greece to become the third European nation to be given a junk rating.

1858 N.Y. Herald 20 Feb. 7/4 From the workshops and clay banks a down grade railroad, about 1,800 feet long, has been substantially built.

1885 Harper's Mag. Apr. 690/2 The train keeps on its rapid down-grade run.

1890 Daily News 8 Dec. 2/1. There are no immediate signs of a down-grade movement [in the number of cattle shown].

1920 Negligence & Compensation Cases Annotated 19 404/2 (note) The derailment took place..at the base of a sharp upgrade, immediately following a long downgrade stretch of track.

1977 Sci. & Technol. in Devel. Arab States (UNESCO) ii. ii. 221 Integrated and sustained research efforts..will be required to arrest the downgrade trends of the arid and semi-arid areas.

2009 Brandon (Manitoba) Sun 18 June (Lifestyles section) 2/4 The three box cars acted as a buffer for other cars in the down-grade run.