释义 |
grade I. \ˈgrād\ noun (-s) Etymology: partly from Latin gradus step, degree; partly from French grade, from Latin gradus; akin to Latin gradi to step, go, Old Irish in-grenn- to pursue, Lithuanian gridyti to go, wander, and perhaps to Gothic grid (accusative) step 1. a. : a stage in a process < passing through the grades of growing up > < the highest grade of development of the brain > b. : a position or level in a course of advancement or decline or in a scale of ranks, qualities, or orders < the country gentlemen were of many different grades of wealth and culture — G.M.Trevelyan > < a school of collegiate grade — Seton Hall University Bulletin > as (1) : one of the successive levels of a usually elementary or secondary school course that usually represents a year's work (2) : a military or naval rank < a naval officer with the grade of lieutenant commander > c. : a degree especially of force or value < the varying grades of success with which a poem attains its end — Samuel Alexander > as (1) : a degree of strength of an abrasive bond (2) : a relative value or content of an ore or mineral < high-grade and low-grade ore > (3) : a degree of severity in illness < the patient had a carcinoma of grade III > (4) : a degree of plant food content in fertilizer expressed in percentages of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash (5) : a degree of purity or concentration (as of a chemical) 2. a. : a class constituted by things that are at the same stage or have the same relative position, level, rank, or degree < the nobles were a higher grade of agriculturalists — John MacNeill > < guilty of a very low grade of crime > especially : a body of elementary school pupils at any one established level of advancement < the fourth grade was allowed to leave school early > b. : a mark indicating a particular grade (as of a student's accomplishment in general or of a particular piece of work) < always got high grades in school > < merited a grade of B on his composition > c. : a standard of quality applied to foods < prime-grade beef > < first-grade potatoes > d. : a standard of quality established as acceptable < threw out all lumber that was below grade > 3. a. : a rate of ascent or descent (as of a railroad, highway, conduit, or ground surface) : gradient < a heavy grade > : deviation from a level surface to an inclined plane stated as so many feet per mile < a grade of 20 feet per mile > or as one foot rise or fall in so many feet of horizontal distance < a grade of 1 in 264 > or as so much in a hundred feet or as a percentage of horizontal distance < a 10 percent grade is one of 10 feet to 100 > b. : a graded ascending, descending, or level portion (as of a road, a railroad, or an embankment) c. : level or elevation especially of a land or water surface: as (1) : a datum or reference level (2) : the contemplated level of the ground when the work of erecting a building is completed : ground level < the underpinning of the tower was above grade > (3) : elevation 1c 4. [translation of German stufe] : any one of the phases of a root or of an affix that appear in an ablaut series and that are characterized by having different vowels : the characteristic vowel of such a phase 5. : a domestic animal one of whose parents is purebred and the other either a scrub or an animal containing a considerable proportion of the blood of the same breed as the purebred parent 6. grades plural : elementary school — used with the < taught in the grades for 10 years > 7. : one of a series of patterns for clothing 8. : one of the three forms of braille ranging from the fully spelled to the highly contracted • - at grade - make the grade - over grade - under grade II. verb (-ed/-ing/-s) transitive verb 1. : to arrange in grades : divide into classes : class, sort: as a. : to assign to a grade or assign a grade to < grade pupils according to their reading ability > < grade lumber by its resistance to rot > < spent an evening grading papers the class had turned in > b. : to classify (a food) according to quality, size, purity, or other appropriate standard c. : to arrange in an increasing or decreasing graduated and usually proportional order (as of value, weight, intensity, difficulty) : graduate < purchased only graded reading material for use in the elementary grades > < necessary to grade the weight of the hammers to correspond with the thickness of the strings — A.E.Wier > < a graded inheritance tax > < good works to be done in satisfaction for sins and graded according to the seriousness of the offense — K.S.Latourette > 2. : to unite by evenly modulated or slight gradations : blend one shade of (as light or color) into another 3. : to reduce (as the line of a canal or roadbed) to an even grade whether on the level or in a progressive ascent or descent < offered to grade the remaining 26 miles of unfinished roadbed — American Guide Series: Texas > 4. : to alter (a vowel) by ablaut or vowel gradation — used chiefly in the passive 5. : to improve (as native stock) by breeding the females to purebred males — often used with up 6. : to make (a working pattern) from a standard pattern for clothing : make (a standard pattern) into a working pattern for clothing — compare grader 3 intransitive verb 1. a. : to form a gradation or a series having only slight differences < the colors graded gradually from red to orange to yellow > < anthracite grades by imperceptible stages into bituminous coal — Encyc. Americana > < interrelated plant communities which graded from one to another through orderly transitions — R.W.Finley > b. : blend < the colors graded into one another at the edges > < any further attempt here to segregate the two would serve no purpose, for … the one inevitably grades into the other — W.H.Dowdeswell > 2. : to proceed on an incline < grading slowly downward — R.L.Stevenson > 3. : to be of or merit a particular grade < lambs grading choice to prime — Chicago Daily Drovers Journal > < a story which grades too low in reader interest — Richard Match > III. adjective 1. : comprising the elementary grades : belonging to an elementary grade < a grade room > : teaching the elementary grades < a grade teacher > 2. of a domestic animal : of improved but not pure stock — distinguished from crossbred and purebred; compare scrub IV. noun (-s) : a particular level of organization (as of a morphological trait) characteristic of a group of biological taxa ; also : a group of taxa (as species) that possess such a level of organization but do not necessarily share a common ancestral lineage — compare clade herein |