graft
/ɡɹæft/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.47 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
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
A portion of living tissue used in the operation of autoplasty.
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.
Transitive verb
verb
To insert scions (grafts) from one tree, or kind of tree, etc., into another; to practice grafting.
Intransitive verb
verb
To implant a portion of (living flesh or akin) in a lesion so as to form an organic union.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "[…] 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 drain,[…]"
- "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 privilege of selling liquor before 1 p.m. on Sunday[…]?"
- "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 foreign rivals, the Guardian can reveal."
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɡɹæft/
- British English: /ɡɹɑːft/
Usage
- Transitive verb
- Intransitive verb
- Obsolete
- Uncountable
- Slang
- Countable
- American usage
- British usage