DCHP-1 Online

high-grading

• 1 n. Mining See 1958 quote.

  See also: high-grade ((1)) ((v.)) (def. 1)  

  • 1910  This high grading was a peculiarly fine point in the ethics of stealing; it was looked upon as something akin to beating the customs.
  • 1958  Highgrading [is] the common term for theft of gold bullion, nuggets, fines or precipitates. . . .
  • 1963  To the Porcupine's 10,000 gold miners, high-grading is . . . more an art than a crime.

• 2 n. Mining the practice of recovering only high-grade or easily separated ore.

  See also: haymaker  

  • 1966  The pattern of mining development in the Yukon to date has been characterised by "high grading" by the first comers using hand-labour; then a slow but steady decline in output as the lower grade minerals came into production.

• 3 n. Lumbering the removal of only the best timber from a stand.

  See also: high-grade ((1)) ((v.)) (def. 2)  

  • 1948  Put to work in poor timber stands left after shameless high-grading of timber during the war, these inexperienced newcomers find it impossible to make a living wage.