graft
UK /ɡɹɑːft/ · US /ɡɹæft/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms grafts grafting grafted graff
- noun (horticulture) 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.
- noun (horticulture) A branch or portion of a tree growing from such a shoot.
- noun (surgery) A portion of living tissue used in the operation of autoplasty.
- verb (transitive) To insert (a graft) in a branch or stem of another tree; to propagate by insertion in another stock; also, to insert a graft upon.
- verb (intransitive) To insert scions (grafts) from one tree, or kind of tree, etc., into another; to practice grafting.
- verb (transitive, surgery) To implant a portion of (living flesh or akin) in a lesion so as to form an organic union.
- verb (transitive) To join (one thing) to another as if by grafting, so as to bring about a close union.
- verb (transitive, nautical) To cover, as a ring bolt, block strap, splicing, etc., with a weaving of small cord or rope yarns.
- verb (chemistry) To form a graft polymer
- noun (obsolete) A ditch, a canal.
- noun The depth of the blade of a digging tool such as a spade or shovel.
- noun A narrow spade used in digging drainage trenches.
- noun (uncountable) Corruption in official life.
- noun (uncountable) Illicit profit by corrupt means, especially in public life.
- noun (uncountable, slang) A criminal’s special branch of practice.
- noun (countable) A con job.
- noun (countable, slang) A cut of the take (money).
- noun (uncountable, US, politics) A bribe, especially on an ongoing basis.
- noun (uncountable, UK, colloquial) Work; labor requiring effort. “We had to put in a lot of hard graft to get the job done.”
- noun (countable, UK, colloquial) A job or trade.
Synonyms
affix attach put together unite imp transplant bribery grafting engraft ingraft
Etymology
From 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.
From Middle Dutch graft (“canal”), from graven (“dig”). The contemporary senses “depth of digging blade” and “narrow spade” may have a separate history, but this is uncertain. Compare Old English grafet (“trench”), Old Norse grǫft (“the action of digging”). Attested from the 17th century. Doublet of gracht.
Uncertain. Some lexicographers suggest an extended use of Etymology 2, above, expanding from “digging” to work more generally, and from there to dishonest work. Others, however, suggest an extension from Etymology 1, shifting from “a shoot or scion” to the notion of corruption through the idea of excrescence.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To insert (a graft) in a branch or stem of another tree; to propagate by insertion in another stock; also, to insert a graft upon. [Formerly written graff.]
- verb To implant a portion of (living flesh or akin) in a lesion so as to form an organic union.
- verb To insert scions from one tree, or kind of tree, etc., into another; to practice grafting.
Etymology [OE. graff, F. greffe, originally the same word as OF. grafe pencil, L. graphium, Gr. carve. So named from the resemblance of a scion or shoot to a pointed pencil. Cf. Graphic, Grammar.]
Etymology [F. greffer. See Graft, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “graft”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details