Grace, grās, n. easy elegance in form or manner: what adorns and commends to favour: embellishment: favour: pardon: the undeserved mercy of God: divine influence: eternal life or salvation: a short prayer at meat: an act or decree of the governing body of an English university: a ceremonious title in addressing a duke or an archbishop: (pl.) favour, friendship (with good): (myth.) the three sister goddesses in whom beauty was deified (the Greek Charites), Euphrosyne, Aglaia, Thalia.—v.t. to mark with favour: to adorn.—n. Grace′-cup, a cup or health drunk at the last of the feast.—adjs. Graced (Shak.), virtuous, chaste; Grace′ful, elegant and easy: marked by propriety or fitness, becoming.—adv. Grace′fully.—n. Grace′fulness.—adjs. Grace′less, wanting grace or excellence: depraved: wicked.—adv. Grace′lessly.—n. Grace′lessness.—ns. Grace′-note (mus.), a note introduced as an embellishment, not being essential to the harmony or melody; Grace′-stroke, a finishing stroke, coup de grâce; Graciō′so, a clown in Spanish comedy, a favourite.—adj. Grā′cious, abounding in grace or kindness: benevolent: proceeding from divine favour: acceptable.—adv. Grā′ciously.—ns. Grā′ciousness, state or quality of being gracious, affability; Grācious′ity, the same, but usually in a bad sense, as implying duplicity.—Days of grace, three days allowed for the payment of a note or bill of exchange, after being due according to its date; Fall from grace, to backslide, to lapse from the state of grace and salvation—an impossibility according to Calvinists.—Good gracious, an exclamation of surprise.—In the good graces of, in the friendship of; Saving grace, divine grace so bestowed as to lead to salvation; Take heart of grace, to take courage from favour shown. [Fr.,—L. gratia, favour—gratus, agreeable; Gr. charis, grace.]
Gracile, gras′il, adj. slender, gracefully slight in form.—n. Gracil′ity. [L. gracilis, slender.]
Grackle, grak′l, n. the common name of many birds of the starling family, all tropical or subtropical.—Also Grak′le. [L. graculus, a jackdaw.]
Grade, grād, n. a degree or step in rank or dignity: the degree of slope on a road as compared with the horizontal: a class of animals produced by crossing a common breed with one purer—also adj.: a group of animals branching off from a common stem.—v.t. Grā′date, to cause to blend gradually from one tint of colour to another.—v.i. to effect gradation.—adv. Gradā′tim, gradually.—n. Gradā′tion, a rising step by step: progress from one degree or state to another: position attained: state of being arranged in ranks: (mus.) a diatonic succession of chords: (paint.) the gradual blending of tints.—adjs. Gradā′tional; Gradā′tioned, formed by gradations or stages; Grad′atory, proceeding step by step, adapted for walking or forward movement; Grā′dient, gradually rising: rising with a regular slope.—n. the degree of slope on a road or railway: the difference in the height of the barometer between one place and another place at some distance: an incline.—ns. Grād′ienter, a surveyor's instrument for determining grades; Grād′in, Gradine′, one of a series of rising seats, as in an amphitheatre: a raised step or ledge behind an altar; Gradin′o, a decoration for the gradin.—adj. Grad′ūal, advancing by grades or degrees: regular and slow.—n. in the Roman Church, the portion of the mass between the epistle and the gospel, formerly always sung from the steps of the altar: the book containing such anthems—also Grail.—ns. Grad′ūalism, Gradūal′ity.—adv. Grad′ūally.—v.t. Grad′ūāte, to divide into regular intervals: to mark with degrees: to proportion.—v.i. to pass by grades or degrees: to pass through a university course and receive a degree.—n. one admitted to a degree in a college, university, or society.—p.adj. Grad′ūāted, marked with degrees, as a thermometer.—ns. Grad′uateship; Gradūā′tion; Grad′ūātor, a mathematical instrument for graduating or dividing lines into regular intervals; Graduc′tion (astron.), the division of circular arcs into degrees, minutes, &c.; Grā′dus, a dictionary of Greek or Latin prosody—contraction of gradus ad Parnassum, a step or stair to Parnassus, the abode of the Muses.—Down, and Up, grade, a descending or ascending part, as of a road. [Fr.,—L. gradus, a step—gradi, to step.]
Gradely, grād′li, adv. (prov.) readily, speedily.—Also Graith′ly.
Gradgrind, gräd′grīnd, n. one who regulates all human things by rule and compass and the mechanical application of statistics, allowing nothing for sentiment, emotion, and individuality. [From Thomas Gradgrind in Dickens's Hard Times.]
Graf, gräf, n. a German title of dignity equivalent to Count:—fem. Gräfin.
Graff, graf, n. (Scot.) a grave. A variant of grave.
Graff, n. and v. (B.). Same as Graft.
Graffito, graf-fē′to, n. the name given to certain classes of mural inscriptions, such as the scribblings of schoolboys and idlers, found at Pompeii, Rome, and other ancient cities:—pl. Graffiti (-fē′tē). [It.—graffiare, to scratch—Low L. graphium, a style.]