1826 New Eng. Farmer 24 Feb. 243/3 120 [lbs] fine high grade fleece washed.

1871 N. Amer. Rev. Jan. 64 They [sc. schools for training workers] are called in Germany Bergschüle, in contradistinction to the high-grade schools, which always bear the name Bergakademie.

1872 D. R. Locke Struggles Petroleum V. Nasby lxxxii. 202 Possessin the deportment uv the fust, the high-grade chivelry and manly physikle perfecshun uv the second.

1880 ‘M. Twain’ Tramp Abroad xxiv. 237 Only the few are educated up to a point where high-grade music gives pleasure.

1929 Daily Express 7 Nov. 8/4 The high-grade private car.

1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 23 May 279/4 But, unlike other fellow-travellers, he was actually engaged in high-grade espionage.

1984 What Video? Aug. 10/2 A range of high grade cassettes in standard lengths in VHS and Beta formats.

2006 News & Observer (Raleigh, N. Carolina) (Nexis) 25 Aug. (What's Up section) 15 Low-grade sake is made from just table rice, high-grade sake is made from rice that can cost 100 times more a pound.

1847 Michigan Farmer Aug. 69/2 The propensity of even high-grade animals to transmit some of the defects of the stock..to their progeny.

1885 Times 9 Apr. 3 A rib roast from a high grade..shorthorn.

1939 R. R. Snapp Beef Cattle (ed. 3) xviii. 252 Their color indicates that they are high grade and purebred individuals of strictly beef type.

1989 G. Smith Livelihood & Resistance v. 146 This was done..by actively buying high grade animals.

2011 D. Rafferty Deserts & Steppes iv. 212 The southeastern area between Mar del Plata and Tandil..was devoted to the breeding of high-grade sheep and cattle.

1847 South Austral. (Adelaide) 19 Oct. 224/4 On low grade ores, requiring twenty tons of ore to give a ton of copper, he [sc. the smelter] will have a deduction of £55 return charges; while on high grade ores, requiring five tons of ore for the ton of copper, he will have only £13 15s.

1869 J. D. Lehmer & A. F. White Rep. Prop. Hyko Silver-Mining Company 19 Sufficient high-grade ore can be obtained to supply Mill No. 1.

1877 R. W. Raymond Statistics Mines & Mining i. 31 The character of the ore there is a high-grade copper-silver-glance, and a very good free-milling ore.

1902 Daily Chron. 10 Apr. 7/2 Great Britain is becoming very short of high-grade ores.

1919 Empire Rev. Mar. 79 Its products are high-grade steels.

1992 New Scientist 7 Mar. 55/2 Masked raiders..got away with half a centner (about 22·5 kilograms) of high-grade catalytic platinum.

2011 J. M. Greer Wealth of Nature ii. 59 In certain limited situations, to be sure, it's possible to substitute one primary good for another—for instance, to use low-grade iron ores such as taconite when high-grade ores have been exhausted by overenthusiastic mining.

1893 Jrnl. Nerv. & Mental Dis. 20 683 It seems strange..that cerebellar tumors should present a specially high grade neuritis.

1913 Med. Times 41 343/1 He..need not fear the disappearance of high grade physical degeneracy.

1937 Amer. Jrnl. Surg. 35 514/1 Most tumors of the breast are high grade and fundamentally a metastasizing group.

1977 Ann. Internal Med. 86 826/1 Malt and Vickery recently reported high-grade celiac artery obstruction in a case identical to ours.

2009 H. Katz Rock Bottom Days 151 My body wracked [sic] by a high grade infection, I spent the next two days sleeping, hallucinating, and drinking orange juice.

1872 L. F. Allen Hist. Short-horn Cattle viii. 164 They had every appearance of being either thorough-bred, or high grades of the Long-horn breed.

1883 26th Ann. Rep. Maine Board Agric. 1882 253 High-grades of either breed [sc. Jersey or Guernsey].

1922 J. V. Pace Twelve Lessons Hog Production viii. 11 Either high grades or purebred pigs may be used for the pork pig club work.

1981 Jrnl. Animal Sci. 52 1008/1 The Charolais..cows included a combination of high grades (7/8 or more) and purebreds.

1904 N.Y. Sun 14 Aug. 11 One of the pests of gold mining in Colorado is the high grades, which is a polite term for the ore thief. The term high grades comes from the fact that they steal only high grade ore.

1904 Alliance News (San Francisco) Oct. 8/3 Many miners..continue to work and to ‘high grade’.

1910 Evening Standard (Ogden, Utah) 30 Aug. 8/6 He will travel in a special train, which will be paid for, no doubt, with the ore which he has ‘high-graded’ from our property.

1930 L. Sage Last Rustler 91 My rope itched for that old pony... Well, I knowed it wouldn't do to high-grade him right now.

1970 O. E. Young Western Mining v. 145 Few apart from the forty thieves who high-graded its ore made much profit.

2010 S. Dallas Prayers for Sale ix. 257 Tom explained that a miner high-graded when he stole good ore from the mine he was working.