?c1510 tr. Newe Landes & People founde by Kynge of Portyngale sig. Bii They of Lussbone is vnder y^t forsayde linie .xxxix. grade and one halfe.

?a1560 L. Digges Geom. Pract.: Pantometria (1571) i. Defs. sig. Biv A Quadrant is..diuided in .90. portions, which partes are named grades or degrees.

1593 T. Fale Horologiographia f. 60 The Grades or Degrees are found in the upper head of this Table, and the Minutes pertaining to the degres on y^e left side.

1801 W. Dupré Lexicographia-neologica Gallica 127 Grade..the grade, or decimal degree of the meridian.

1833 J. C. Snowball Elements Plane Trigonom. (1837) 5 To find the relation between E and F, the number of degrees and grades contained in the same angle BAC.

1968 Times 24 June 25/5 May I make a plea that the makers of theodolites cease producing circles marked in the sexagesimal system and use the metric system—that is, divide a right angle into 100 grades?

1808 E. S. Barrett Miss-led General 32 At seventeen, having hopped, skipped, and jumped through all the inferior grades..he became colonel.

1830 J. F. W. Herschel Prelim. Disc. Study Nat. Philos. 67 If on comparing the very lowest states in civilized and savage life, we admit a difficulty in deciding to which the preference is due, at least in every superior grade we cannot hesitate a moment.

a1862 H. T. Buckle Hist. Civilisation Eng. (1869) III. v. 288 Teachers of every grade, from village school~masters to tutors in private families.

1866 A. Crump Pract. Treat. Banking ii. 47 Unfortunate officers of all grades.

1868 J. H. Blunt Reformation Church of Eng. I. 396 The minor orders were holy orders as well as the three higher grades of the ministry.

1870 J. H. Burton Hist. Scotl. to 1688 VII. lxxiii. 130 He was a man of inferior grade and nature.

1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer (1891) 215 The companionship of some one nearly approaching his own grade.

1827 Lincoln & Lincolnshire Cabinet 7 Any artist skilled in delineating the lower grades of human life.

1836 C. Dickens Pickwick Papers (1837) ii. 16 The solicitors' wives, and the wine merchant's wife, headed another grade.

1858 J. B. Norton Topics for Indian Statesmen 112 Regulating the numbers and grades to be withdrawn for staff employ.

1870 J. H. Burton Hist. Scotl. to 1688 VI. lxvii. 388 Promotion in the higher grades of the Church.

1888 J. Bryce Amer. Commonw. II. xlix. 253 The public schools..are everywhere and in all grades gratuitous.

1897 Daily News 24 Feb. 7/5 All grades of railway employés were now organized.

1835 Southern Literary Messenger 1 275 In the first and second grades boys and girls are schooled together.

1852 Indiana Hist. Soc. Publ. III. 619 Qualified to teach in any of the grades, from the primary to the grammar school.

1903 A. B. Hart Actual Govt. 543 Many cities have public kindergartens, which take children of 4 to 5 years of age in hand and teach them simple beginnings. The next division is usually the primary, extending over 3 to 6 years, followed by about 4 years of the grammar school; these two systems taken together are often called simply ‘the grades’.

1904 O. H. Lang in Forum (U.S.) Oct. 268 Polite conduct and usages might advantageously be taught in the grades and in the high school.

1906 C. A. McMurry (title) Course of study in the eight grades.

1909 Springfield (Mass.) Weekly Republican 18 Feb. 2 In the British isles the classes are designated standards and these are supposed to correspond to our grades.

1934 W. Saroyan Daring Young Man (1935) 75 A little girl named Maxine, in the third grade.

1967 Atlantic Apr. 102/2 My plan after being passed out of Grade VIII, King Edward School, was to go with my best girlfriend.

1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 3 Feb. 8/4 Ontario..will have public French education from Grade 1 through university.

1970 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. 1968 l. 50 Attended Memphis public schools. Completed fifth grade.

1886 Ann. Rep. Pres. Harvard 1885–6 72 The marks received by a student in the several studies of his college course have until now been combined to determine the grade of his degree.

1889 Harvard Faculty Rec. 15 Oct. Any member of the graduating class who has attained Grade C or a higher grade in eighteen courses [etc.].

1963 H. C. Barnard & J. A. Lauwerys Handbk. Brit. Educ. Terms 101 Grading, a method of placing pupils in groups according to their academic attainment in examinations or tests. Frequently five grades, named A, B, C, D, E, are used.

1964 Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 10 June (1970) 163 Her grades were excellent and she planned to go to the University of Southwestern Louisiana.

1966 Rep. Comm. Inq. (Univ. of Oxf.) II. 68 Where more than three A levels in different subjects had been taken, the rating is based on the three best grades.

1966 Rep. Comm. Inq. (Univ. of Oxf.) II. 463 Questionnaire for Schools Survey... What had been their performance in ‘A’ Level examinations (subjects attempted and grades achieved).

1807 J. Marshall Life of Washington V. 213 To talents of the highest grade, he united a patient industry.

1816 U. Brown Jrnl. in Maryland Hist. Mag. (1915) 10 274 Jack Oaks of the meanest grade.

1818 H. B. Fearon Sketches Amer. 30 Neither trades are (to use an Americanism) of the first grade.

1818 H. B. Fearon Sketches Amer. 191 Because their neighbour's face was (to use their own phrase) a grade darker than their own.

1833 H. Martineau Berkeley the Banker i. v. 99 On either side of Miss Egg, various grades of tippets and bonnets.

1853 C. Kingsley Hypatia I. v. 109 The furniture of the chamber was but a grade above that of the artisan's.

1880 Manch. Guard. 27 Nov. Low grades [of cotton] are again decidedly dearer.

1884 York Herald 26 Aug. 7/2 Tea: The tone of the market is firm, and most grades are rather dearer.

1893 F. C. Selous Trav. S.-E. Afr. 354 The ore was of such low grade that it would not pay to work it.

1911 Proc. 5th Ann. Conf. Amer. Assoc. Medical Milk Commissions 100 On or soon after the first of January 1912, there will be three grades of milk, A, B, and C. Grade A—for infants, children, and adults certified (or equivalent such as guaranteed)... Grade B—for adults only, Pasteurized... Grade C—for cooking purposes only.

1920 Collier's 20 Mar. 35/3 All you could see was her little peaches and grade A cream face stickin' out over the top.

1935 N. Mitchison We have been Warned iv. 385 She'd always insisted on Grade A milk.

1936 A. Thirkell August Folly i. 10 A very fine herd of cows which supply Grade A milk, at prices fixed by the Milk Marketing Board.

1942 O. Nash Good Intentions 45 Give me a grade-A May day.

1948 H. R. Davidson Production & Marketing Pigs iv. 51 The ‘basic price’ was the price for a Grade C pig in each class. Bonuses above and reductions below the basic prices applied to Grades A and B and to D and E.

1968 R. Stout Father Hunt (1969) xiv. 161 If the fingerprints didn't match we were left with a Grade A mess.

1877 E. R. Lankester Notes on Embryol. in Q. Jrnl. Microsc. Sci. 17 440 [The writer refers to grade as a new term introduced by himself.] Whilst all other terms indicate branches of the pedigree diverging from a very nearly common point..the various ‘grades’ are introduced to separate the starting-points of the branches; a certain advance in differentiation of structure separates the branches of a higher grade from those of a lower.

1957 J. S. Huxley in Nature 7 Sept. 455/2 Stasi~genesis results in the formation of delimitable and persistent anagenetic units, or grades.

1958 J. S. Huxley in Uppsala Univ. Årsskrift vi. 27 The best general term for such anagenetic units would seem to be grade.

1961 G. G. Simpson Princ. Animal Taxon. iv. 126 That grade is..now known to have been reached independently by a considerable number of different clades.

1967 R. E. Blackwelder Taxon. xiii. 220 It is not uncommon to interpolate such levels as Branch, Grade, and Series between Subkingdom and Phyla.

1891 A. L. Mayhew Synopsis Old Eng. Phonol. p. xvi The double colon (::) occurring between forms of words, is used to indicate ‘ablaut’ or change of grade in a vowel series.

1872 J. Beames Compar. Gram. Aryan Lang. India I. iii. 190 Initial consonants retain the grade of each organ in the purest and truest way..By the expression ‘grade’ must be understood the two classes of tenues and mediæ.

1835 Jrnl. Franklin Inst. 15 New Ser. 230 From whence it [the route of a proposed railroad] continues in nearly a direct course, rising at a grade of about twenty feet to the mile.

1840 H. S. Tanner Canals & Rail Roads U.S. 78 The grades vary from a level to an inclination of 1 in 330.

1888 J. Bryce Amer. Commonw. III. cxiv. 641 A railroad line of gentle grade.

1898 in Westm. Gaz. 19 Jan. 2/1 The relations that should exist between the grade of a sewer, its size, and the volume of flush water required to produce a given effect.

1898 in Daily News 81 May 10/3 The river you enter after leaving Lake Lebarge..has a big grade.

1877 R. W. Raymond Statistics Mines & Mining 278 The surface works of the mine are situated about 300 feet above the ‘grade’, or stage-road.

1883 R. L. Stevenson Silverado Squatters ii. ii. 70 Entered the Toll road, or, to be more local, entered on ‘the grade’.

1876 G. K. Gilbert in Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 112 100 In this way a stream, which has a supply of debris equal to its capacity, tends to build up the gentler slopes of its bed and cut away the steeper. It tends to establish a single, uniform grade.

1894 W. M. Davis in Jrnl. Geol. (Chicago) 2 78 In certain cases, it seems to be possible for a stream to cut down its profile to a gentler grade in its early adolescence than is suitable to later adolescence and maturity.]

1902 W. M. Davis in Jrnl. Geol. (Chicago) 10 89 The use of ‘grade’, in the sense here advocated, was almost reached by Gilbert.

1902 W. M. Davis in Jrnl. Geol. (Chicago) 10 92 The development of grade depends on the spontaneous adjustment of the capacity of a river to do work, and the quantity of work to be done by the river.

1934 C. R. Longwell et al. Outl. Physical Geol. iii. 42 In places where there is an approximate balance between erosion and deposition, the stream is said to be graded or at grade.

1936 Geogr. Jrnl. 87 25 At least twice the river cut down to grade and had begun to widen its channel when rejuvenation forced it to trench further.

1942 O. D. von Engeln Geomorphol. viii. 134 Maintenance of grade consists of a continuous, infinite series of adjustments between volume, slope, and sediment supply.

1963 D. W. Humphries & E. E. Humphries tr. H. Termier & G. Termier Erosion & Sedimentation v. 106 The profile is actually a composite curve, showing breaks at each important confluence and irregularities caused by the nature of the rocks which it crosses. It is a uniform slope varying regularly, a ‘grade’.

1970 O. T. Jones in G. H. Dury Rivers & River Terraces iii. 75 Between Carmarthen and Fanog the Towy is graded to present sea-level, and the tributaries which enter it are at grade with the existing river.

1912 J. Sandilands Western Canad. Dict. & Phrase-bk. 20 Make the grade, make the running.

1921 S. Ford Inez & Trilby May ix. 168 It's Gwendolyn that's got to do the hustling. Three days! I doubt if she can make the grade.

1922 Collier's 7 Oct. 5/1 I don't think he can make the grade.

1930 Publishers' Weekly 5 July 29/1 Can the seasonal bookshop make the grade, and under what conditions?

1932 A. Powell Venusberg xxxiii. 235 How will it feel when the Recording Angel calls your bluff for the last time? How many of us will make the grade?

1958 Listener 9 Oct. 568/3 A would-be thief who cannot make the grade.

1958 Times 24 Oct. 14/7 Word spread quickly round the village: my cottage had made the grade.

1659 R. Eedes Wisdom Iustified 34 in Christ Exalted They that turn many to righteousness shall be graded in glory accordingly.

1880 J. G. Fitch Lect. Teaching (1881) 48 When Schools are rightly graded each will have its own complete and characteristic course.

1882 Harper's Mag. Dec. 123/2 Seats were graded according to rank in the churches.

1885 Standard Nat. Hist. IV. 179 Grading our groups on a somewhat different principle..we include the two species of boat-bills..in the sub-family Cochleariinæ.

1885 Pall Mall Gaz. 13 June 6/1 It is a comparatively simple matter to grade American wheat.

1889 Marg. Lee Faithf. & Unf. xi. 125 He despises Maud, and grades me with her.

1890 Westm. Rev. Apr. 351 Society grades the wrong of killing, and gives names to the degrees.

1889 Times 23 Oct. 5/4 Cider..is again graded with other apple juices, so as to produce either sweet or dry cider.

1871 [implied in: Athenæum 29 Apr. 531/1 The art of the painter has supplied that subtle grading of light and tone which all enjoy. (at grading n. 1)].

1882 Athenæum 7 Jan. 23/1 The sky is tenderly graded from the vapours of the horizon to the clear blue of the zenith.

1893 H. B. Baildon Rescue, etc. 81 Pencilled, painted, grained and graded.

1891 N.Y. Tribune 30 Oct. 7/3 (Funk) They have had no frost and the wheat is grading nearly all No. 1 hard.

1841 G. Catlin Lett. N. Amer. Indians I. x. 69 By the action of water..the country seems to have been graded away.

1896 W. D. Howells Impressions & Experiences 230 I..mount some steps graded in the rock at one place.