/ɡɹɑːft/, /ɡɹæft/
OriginFrom Middle English graffe, from Old French greffe (“stylus”), from Latin graphium (“stylus”), from Ancient Greek γραφείον (grapheíon), from γράφειν (gráphein, “to write”); probably akin to English carve. So named from the resemblance of a scion or shoot to a pointed pencil. Doublet of graphium. Compare graphic, grammar.
- A small shoot or scion of a tree inserted in another tree, the stock of which is to support and nourish it. The two unite and become one tree, but the graft determines the kind of fruit.
- A branch or portion of a tree growing from such a shoot.
- A portion of living tissue used in the operation of autoplasty.
- obsoleteA ditch, a canal.
- The depth of the blade of a digging tool such as a spade or shovel.
“[…] in the first operation, we dug through the peat, the hard sand, and gravel, and one spade's graft (about nine inches deep, and seven inches wide) into the quick sand, the whole length of this drai”
- A narrow spade used in digging drainage trenches.
- uncountableCorruption in official life.
- uncountableIllicit profit by corrupt means, especially in public life.
- slang, uncountableA criminal’s special branch of practice.
- countableA con job.
- countable, slangA cut of the take (money).
- US, uncountableA bribe, especially on an ongoing basis.
“If policemen take graft now from the liquor dealers for the privilege of keeping open on Sunday, what is to prevent them, if this bill is passed, from taking graft from the liquor men for the privileg”
- British, colloquial, uncountableWork; labor requiring effort.
“We had to put in a lot of hard graft to get the job done.”
“Liz Truss, now the Tory leadership frontrunner, launched an astonishing broadside against British workers, saying they needed “more graft” and suggesting they lacked the “skill and application” of for”
- British, colloquial, countableA job or trade.
- transitiveTo insert (a graft) in a branch or stem of another tree; to propagate by insertion in another stock; also, to insert a graft upon.
- intransitiveTo insert scions (grafts) from one tree, or kind of tree, etc., into another; to practice grafting.
- transitiveTo implant a portion of (living flesh or akin) in a lesion so as to form an organic union.
- transitiveTo join (one thing) to another as if by grafting, so as to bring about a close union.
“And graft my love immortal on thy fame!”
“Of course, this was a music cruise, a floating rock festival grafted onto a passenger ship, and a quietly thriving corner of the music and cruise industries.”
- transitiveTo cover, as a ring bolt, block strap, splicing, etc., with a weaving of small cord or rope yarns.
- To form a graft polymer
- colloquial, intransitiveTo work hard.
- To obtain illegal gain from bribery or similar corrupt practices.
Formsgrafts(plural) · graff(alternative, archaic) · grafts(present, singular, third-person) · grafting(participle, present) · grafted(participle, past) · grafted(past) · Grafts(plural)