▪ I. graff, n.1 arch.;
(grɑːf, -æ-)
superseded in ordinary use by graft. Forms: α. 4–6 graf(e, 4–7 graffe, 4– graff. β. 6 greffe, grefe. γ. 5–6 gryf(fe, 6–7 griff(e.
[a. OF. grafe, greffe (mod.F. greffe), semi-popular ad. late L. graphium, ad. Gr. γραϕίον, γραϕεῖον stylus, f. γράϕειν to write. The sense ‘stylus, pencil’ is common in OFr.; the transferred sense of ‘scion, graft’ was suggested by the similarity of shape.
The OFr. word was adopted in Du. both in the original and the transferred sense: MDu. greffie, griffie, mod.Du. griffie, grif, whence perh. the γ forms above. Du. has also a form grift, with which cf. Eng. grift, graft n.]
1. A shoot or scion inserted in another stock: = graft n.1 1.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. ii. (1495) 595 The beste is whan the graffe and the stocke ben lyke. c 1440 J. Capgrave Life St. Kath. ii. 1247 Liche a gryf am I I-planted be God vp-on a old stok. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §138 Thou must get thy graffes of the fayrest lanses that thou canste fynde on the tree. 1530 Palsgr. 227/2 Grefe, ente. 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 190 Gather Cyons for Graffs before the Buds sprout. 1703 Pope Vertumnus 13 Now the cleft rind inserted graffs receives. 1823 Cobbett Weekly Reg. 29 Mar. 827 Trees with very fine bloom coming from graffs imported the year before last. 1859 Tennyson Vivien 477 A Gardener putting in a graff. |
| fig. 1570 Dee Math. Pref. 2 What commodity..is to be looked for, as well of griff as stocke. 1593 Shakes. Lucr. 1062 This bastard graff shall never come to growth. a 1603 T. Cartwright Confut. Rhem. N.T. (1618) 85 Out of the griffe of transfiguration, it were strange to gather the fruite of Transubstantiation. 1661 Boyle Style Holy Script. 141 The Word, which Saint James pronounces able to save our Souls, he describes as a Graff. 1826 E. Irving Babylon II. 329 With occasional allusions to the Gentile graff, which was graffed into that ancient and everlasting stock. |
2. A twig, shoot, scion; gen. a branch, plant: = graft n.1 2.
| 1555 Eden Decades 162 They wyll suffer owre corne, graffes and frutes to bee consumed of woormes. 15.. Robin Hood (Ritson) 128, I have a staff of another oke graff. 1567 Turberv. Epit. etc. 5 b, How coulde so barraine soyle bring forth so good a Graffe? 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. (1882) 82 If he can get a graffe of this tree loden with..apples. 1613–16 W. Browne Brit. Past ii. iv, On a Cypresse Graffe..they hung this Epitaph. 1831 T. L. Peacock Crotchet Cas. xii. (1887) 135 We can no more [etc.], than we can flourish the oaken graff of the Pindar of Wakefield. |
| fig. a 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. ii. 201 Loue is..þe graffe of grace and grayþest wey to heuene. 1509 Barclay Shyp of Folys (1570) 44 b, Roote out the graffes of your olde offence. 1522 More De quat. Noviss. Wks. 85/1 Litle meruail it is though enuy be an vngracious grafe. For it cometh of an vngracious stocke. |
† 3. An act of grafting. In quot. transf. Obs.
| 1610 Douland Var. Lute-lessons B 2 b, But if the letter that we doubt of, be placed not alone, but with one or more other letters, which coniunction we for this time will call a griffe, then the difficultie is greater. |
4. attrib. and Comb., graffshoot = sense 1; graff-stock, a stock on which to graft.
| 1502 Arnolde Chron. (1811) 169 To haue frute without cores, loke thou haue a sufficient graffstok and doo therwith as I said before. 1860 T. Martin Horace 226 The russet fig adorns the tree, that graffshoot never knew. |
▪ II. graff, n.2 Obs. exc. Hist.
(grɑːf, -æ-)
Also 7–9 graffe, 8 grauff.
[prob. ad. MDu. grave wk. masc. = grave n.1]
A trench serving as a fortification; a dry or wet ditch; a foss or moat; rarely, a canal (in Holland). Cf. graft n.2
| 1637 R. Monro Exped. i. 69 The enemy forsaking our workes unconquered, the graffe filled with their dead bodies. 1641 Evelyn Diary 19 Aug., It is by extraordinary industry that as well this Citty, as generaly the townes of Holland, are so acommodated w{supt}{suph} graffs, cutts, sluces, moles, and rivers. a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. viii. §6 The walls [of Arundel Castle] were very strong, and the graff broad and deep. 1706 Maule Hist. Picts in Misc. Scot. I. 61 It had a deep grauff and a drawbridge. 1759 B. Martin Nat. Hist. Eng. II. Cambridge 95 Two Graffs between the three Ramparts. 1791 Luckombe Beauties Eng. I. 286 Another very large camp and prodigious works, the graff being inwards and outwards. 1850 Warburton Reginald Hastings I. 13 The Saxon palace had been..surrounded by a graff, or moat, in the reign of Rufus. 1898 Blackw. Mag. Oct. 518/2 A bristling monstrosity of sconces, graffes, fussies, stackets and crenelles. |
| transf. 1637 R. Monro Exped. i. 29 Retiring to one corner of his Kingdom, to prevent the losse of the whole, being naturally fortified with a broad graffe, as the isle of Britaine. |
▪ III. graff, n.3
(grɑːf, -æ-)
Also 6 graffe, 7 grafe, griffe.
[perh. a variant of graft n.3]
1. = graft n.3 1: usually spade('s) graff. ? Obs.
| 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §124 Dygge vp the muldes a spade⁓graffe depe. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 466 There was found in Dalmatia a vaine of gold ore within one spades griffe in the first turfe of the ground. 1649 W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. iv. (1653) 23 Thou must go half one Spades grafe deep at lest. |
2. dial. = graft n.3 2.
| 1875 Parish Sussex Gloss., Graff or Graffing Tool, a curved spade, generally made of wood shod with iron, used by drainers. |
▪ IV. graff, v.1 arch.;
(grɑːf, -æ-)
in ordinary use superseded by graft v. Forms: α. 4–7 graffe, 5 graffyn. β. 6 greffe. γ. 5 gryffe(n, -yn, 7 griffe.
[f. graff n.1; recorded earlier than the equivalent OF. grafier, mod.F. greffer.]
1. trans. To insert (a scion of one tree) into a different stock: = graft v.1 1.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 137, I was sum tyme..the couentes gardyner..for to graffe ympes. 1388 Wyclif Rom. xi. 19 The braunchis ben brokun, that Y be graffid in. 14.. Songs & Carols (Warton Club) 35 The fayrest mayde of this toun preyid me For to gryffyn here a gryf of myn pery tre. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §137 A peare or a warden wolde be graffed in a pyrre-stocke. 1574 T. Hill Planting 86 Ye may graffe your graffes full as long as two or three trunchions. 1621 Ainsworth Annot. Pentat. Lev. xix. 19 (1639) 115 He..graffeth one tree in another. 1706 J. Gardiner Rapin's Gard. (1728) 167 To graff a fruitful Branch on barren Trees. |
| fig. c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode i. cvi. (1869) 56 She hath be graffed bi subtile art and ioyned to this burdoun. 1548–9 (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer (Collect 7th Sund. Trinity), Graffe in our hartes the loue of thy name. a 1553 Udall Royster D. i. i. (Arb.) 12 In these twentie townes..Is not the like stocke, whereon to graffe a loute. 1605 Camden Rem. (1637) 41 We graffe upon French words those buds, to which that soile affoordeth no growth. a 1645 D. Featley in Fuller's Abel Rediv. (1651) 542 Of all the fruitfull trees in our Paradise he chose to griffe his meditations upon the Apocalipse upon Abbot his stocke. 1692 Locke Educ. §200 The proper Stock whereon afterwards to graff the true Principles of Morality and Religion. 1695 E. Welchman Husbandm. Man. (1707) 43 A Man is by the Baptism of Repentance graffed into the body of Christs Church. 1828 E. Irving Baptism ii. Wks. 1864 II. 286 When God is visiting a people in his wrath..no new branches are graffed into Christ. 1878 Browning Poets Croisic 139 Never hope to graff A second sprig of triumph there! 1882 Freeman Reign Will. Rufus II. vii. 455 The old stock was neither cut down nor withered away; but a new stock was graffed upon it. |
† b. transf. To set or fix firmly. Obs.
| 1536 Lady Brian in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. II. 82, I trust to God & her teeth were well graft. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Feb. 242 So longe haue I listened to thy speche, That graffed to the ground is my breche. 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas i. iv. 220 Twelve [Houses] in that rich Girdle greft Which God gave Nature for her New-Years-gift. 1608 A. Willet Hexapla in Exod. 685 They [the horns of the altar] were made out of the same matter and wood, not griffed in. 1624 Gee Foot out of Snare v. 38 [His] legs cut off at the knees..were, without the help of any Artist, graffed on again. 1648 Gage West Ind. xii. 54 In the walls whereof was graffed betwixt stone and stone a skull with the teeth outwards. |
2. absol. and intr. To insert a graft or grafts.
| 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 251 b/2 Ypolyte took his legge..and tooke and set it in his place like as on graffyth in a tree. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §136 It is conuenyent to lerne howe thou shalt graffe. 1572 L. Mascall Plant. & Graff. Exhortation, Before ye doe intend to plant or Graffe, it shall be meete to haue good experience in thinges meete for this Arte. 1658 tr. Porta's Nat. Magic iii. v. 68 Nature, saith he [Pliny], hath taught how to graffe with a seed. 1693 Evelyn De la Quint. Compl. Gard. II. 106 We might Graff in the Cleft, during the Months of November [etc.]. |
| fig. 1676 Dryden Epil. Man of Mode, So brisk, so gay, so travailed, so refined, As he took pains to graff upon his kind. |
3. trans. To insert a graft in (a stock). Also vaguely (= graft v.1 3).
| 1564 Golding Justine xliii. (1570) 175 They lerned to plant and graffe their olyues. 1575 Gascoigne Posies 190 To griffe a pippine stocke, when sappe begins to swell. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage iii. vii. 227 Date trees, amongst which there are two growing out of one stock exceeding high, which their Prophet forsooth graffed with his owne hande. 1693 Evelyn De la Quint. Compl. Gard. II. 107 April is likewise Convenient to Graff Vines. 1820 Scott Abbot xxxviii, I scarce remember the pear-mains which I graffed here with my own hands some fifty years since. |
† 4. To implant. lit. and fig. = graft v.1 4.
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. i. 115 Seedis newe eschewe To sowe or graffe. c 1450 Lonelich Grail xlii. 108 Ouer the Se Cowndyed scholen ȝe be Into the lond that is to ȝow behote, there-Inne to Gryffen Many A Rote. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. 18 God hath graffed & geuen man power therunto, wherof these are deriued. 1573 Baret Alv. G 419 There is a sober thriftinesse graffed in thy race and kinred naturally. |
5. Comb., † graff-horn (see quot.).
| 1611 Cotgr., Cuco cocuant, a cuckold-maker, a Graffe⁓horne. |
▪ V. graff, v.2 Obs. exc. dial.
[variant of grave v.]
intr. To dig.
| 1387–8 T. Usk Test. Love Prol. 5 Dul wit and a thoughtful soule so sore have myned and graffed in my spirites. 1875 Graffing [see graff n.3 2]. |
▪ VI. graff
var. grave n.1; obs. f. graf, count.