Permissions (Database Engine)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191291.aspx
The following table lists major classes of permissions and the kinds of securables to which they may be applied.

Permission
Applies to

SELECT
Synonyms
Tables and columns
Table-valued functions, Transact-SQL and common language runtime (CLR), and columns
Views and columns

VIEW CHANGE TRACKING
Tables
Schemas

UPDATE
Synonyms
Tables and columns
Views and columns

REFERENCES
Scalar and aggregate functions (Transact-SQL and CLR)
Service Broker queues
Tables and columns
Table-valued functions (Transact-SQL and CLR), [...]

Database level permissions for SQL Server 2005 and 2008

SQL Server 2005 introduced a new concept to SQL Server security and permissions: securables. Securables are anything within SQL Server that can have a permission assigned. One such securable is the database.
Below are the list of database-level permissions:

Permission
Effect

ALTER
This grants or denies the ability to alter the existing database.

ALTER ANY APPLICATION ROLE
This grants or [...]