high-grade

[hahy-greyd]

adjective

1. of excellent or superior quality.

2. (of ore) yielding a relatively large amount of the metal for which it is mined.

verb (used with object)

high-graded, high-grading 

1. to steal (rich ore) from a mine.

Other Word Forms

• high-grader noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of high-grade¹

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

A defensive rotation into Treasury bonds, gold, high-grade corporate bonds and solid dividend-paying stocks would be likely.

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A Gleason score of nine meant his illness was classified as "high-grade" and the cancer cells could spread quickly, according to Cancer Research UK.

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The factory, which sat on about 1300 acres of land, produced C-4, TNT and other high-grade military and commercial explosives and stored them there.

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It's "a bit sad" to see high-grade matcha used in cooking - where its delicate flavour is often lost - or stockpiled for resale, said Ms Mori.

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County Sanitation Districts operate the Tulare Lake Compost facility, which processes sewage sludge and agricultural waste to produce high-grade compost.

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Related Words

• state-of-the-art 
• top-of-the-line