▪ I. graft, n.1
(grɑːft, -æ-)
Forms: α. 5 grafte, 6– graft. β. 6 gryft, 6–7 grift(e.
[A modification of the earlier graff n.1
The precise formation is uncertain. Possibly due to the use of graft as pa. tense and pa. pple. of graff v.1 But there has been much phonetic confusion between (f) and (ft) at the end of words; cf. draft as a variant of draff. The forms grif under graff n.1 and grifte above may perh. be influenced by the Du. grif, grift (recorded from 16th c.); in Du. it is uncertain whether the -t is a suffix or phonetically excrescent.]
1. A shoot or scion inserted in a groove or slit made in another stock, so as to allow the sap of the latter to circulate through the former.
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 162/1 A Grafte, surculus. 1554 Acc. Edw. VI in Trevelyan Papers (Camden) II. 15 Sir John Wulfe..maker and deviser of the Kinges herbors and plantes of grafts. 1560 Becon Catech. Wks. 1564 I. 435 b, Is there any man..will cal a young gryft of the first yeres gryfting fruteles and barren. 1649 J. Ellistone tr. Behmen's Epist. v. §49 A plant or grift that is set, doth worke so long till it putteth forth its branches. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) III. 96 This tumour every day buds forward from the point like the graft of a tree. 1813 Sir. H. Davy Agric. Chem. (1814) 253 The graft is only nourished by the sap of the tree to which it is transferred. 1878 J. Buller 40 Y. in N. Zealand I. viii. 63 Fruitful orchards are the outcome of grafts I introduced. |
| fig. 1547 Becon Agst. Adultery Wks. 1560 II. 161 b, If God spared not the natural braunches, neyther wyll he spare vs that be but graftes, if we commit lyke offences. 1650 Davenant Gondibert Pref. (1673) 3 New grafts of old wither'd words. 1844 H. H. Wilson Brit. India I. i. viii. 579 The legislative encouragement yielded to missionary labours was also a graft upon the original design. 1871 Browning Pr. Hohenst. 1524 A devil's-graft on God's foundation-stone. 1885 Act 48 & 49 Vict. c. 73 §8 The interest vested in him by such order shall..be deemed to be a graft upon the previous interest of the tenant in the holding. |
† 2. A twig or off-shoot fit for use in grafting; a scion, sucker; hence gen. a branch, plant. Obs.
| 1587 Fenner Song of Songs iv. 13 Thy gryfts they are, as of A pomgranat orchard. 1606 L. Bryskett Civ. Life 2 To transport from..forraine countries..strange grafts, plants and flowers. 1624 Quarles Sion's Sonets xii. 13 My love is like a Paradise, beset With rarest grifts, whose fruits..The world nere tasted. |
| fig. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. Epit. A b, This younge impe and flexible grifte..bent not his listening eare unto others lore. 1587 Turberv. Trag. T. etc. (1837) 345 No tree can take so deep a roote as grifts of faithful love. 1598 Drayton Heroic. Ep. x. 81 Edward the top-Branch of that golden Tree..I his Graft, of eu'ry Weed o'r-growne. 1600 Fairfax Tasso xvii. lxxix. 311 And in Bauaria's field transplanted new This Romane grift florisht, encreast and grew. 1614 Ralegh Hist. World i. i. ii. §6. 32 God gaue vnto man all kinde of seeds and grafts of life. |
3. Surg. ‘A portion of living tissue transplanted from one place to another on the same or another organism, with a view to its adhesion and growth’ (Billings Med. Dict. 1890); also, the operation or its result, the adhesion and growth of such new tissue.
| 1871 J. Woodman Notes Transpl. or Engraft. Skin 19, I took three small pieces of skin from her own arm and engrafted them... On the fourth day I removed the plaster, and with it one of the grafts. 1886 Dict. Pract. Surg. (ed. Heath) I. 616 These grafts may be placed at any part of a healing granulation-surface, and may grow there, forming islets of skin. Ibid. 618 The preservation of the periosteum is not essential to the success of the graft..When an osseous graft is about to be effected, the part into which the graft is to be placed ought to be first prepared. 1913 Interstate Med. Jrnl. XX. 573 Only the peripheral part of thyroid grafts persisted, the central part becoming necrotic... Regeneration was complete at the end of three months, and the graft differed from a normal gland by an infiltration of connective tissue. 1970 Oxford Times 16 Jan. 1/1 This is the first transplant operation to be carried out at the hospital. The other kidney graft in Oxford was at the Radcliffe Infirmary two years ago. 1970 Nature 28 Feb. 851 Liver grafts may be less exacting in their genetical requirements than those of kidney. |
4. [From the vb.] a. The process or product of grafting (see combinations in 5); also, a variety produced by grafting, a kind (of fruit).
| 1847 Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. iii. Jarvis's Wig, On the precise graft of the espalier of Eden, Sanchoniathon Manetho, and Berosus are undecided. |
b. The place where the scion is inserted in the stock.
| 1802 Forsyth Fruit-trees i. 8 Taking off the worst branches first,..always cutting as near to the graft as possible. 1898 L. H. Bailey Pruning-bk. 263 The grafting of the main trunk has some disadvantages, because a bad fork is apt to occur at the graft. |
5. attrib. and Comb. (in sense 3), as graft-growth, graft surface, graft theory; graft-hybrid (see quot.); graft-hybridism, -hybridization, the process of hybridizing by means of a graft.
| 1868 Darwin Var. Anim. & Plants I. xi. 390 If..we must admit the extraordinary fact that two distinct species can unite by their cellular tissue, and subsequently produce a plant bearing leaves and sterile flowers intermediate in character between the scion and stock..Such plants, if really thus formed, might be called graft-hybrids. Ibid. II. xxvii. 365 The case would become one of graft-hybridism. 1875 Ibid. (ed. 2) I. xi. 423 The number of new forms produced by graft-hybridisation. 1886 Syd. Soc. Lex., Graft theory, a theory which attributes the causation of disease to organic particles detached from the body of a diseased person, which becoming engrafted into a healthy person set up a diseased process in his body similar to that which existed in the body of the person from which they were detached. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 726 The interesting process of implantation or graft growths from a growth in one part of the intestines to another has been already referred to. 1897 W. Anderson Surg. Treat. Lupus 14 The graft surface has a better appearance than that of an ordinary cicatrix. |
▪ II. † graft, n.2 Obs.
[a. MDu. graft fem. and neut. (MDu. and Du. gracht fem.), f. graven to dig. Cf. next and graff n.2]
A ditch; a moat; Also (in Holland) a street on either side of a canal.
| 1641 Evelyn Diary (1889) I. 26 The Keiser's or Emperor's Graft, which is an ample and long street. 1644 Prynne & Walker Fiennes's Trial App. 11 The Castle was a very large stong Hold, fortified with a very broad deepe ditch, or graft. 1653–4 Whitelocke Jrnl. Swed. Emb. (1772) II. 292 The grafts of the workes are large and deep, full of water on all sides. 1683 Apol. Prot. France iv. 46 They caught a Soldier measuring the Graft and the Wall in order to scale the place. 1737 G. Smith Curious Relat. I. iii. 387 All the rest which the Canals, Grafts, and Rivers are fill'd with, being salt, or at least brackish. |
▪ III. graft, n.3
(grɑːft, -æ-)
[a. (? or cognate with) ON. grǫft-r action of digging:—OTeut. *graftu-z masc., f. *graƀ- grave v. to dig.]
1. The depth of earth that may be thrown up at once with a spade; a ‘spit’. Often spade('s) graft.
| 1620 Markham Farew. Husb. (1625) 41 Within a spades graft of the vpper swarth of the earth. 1681 J. Chetham Angler's Vade-m. iv. §9 (1689) 38 You yourself may dig one spade Graft, deep in Sandy heathy ground. 1792 Trans. Soc. Arts X. 139 We dug..one spade's graft (about nine inches deep, and seven inches wide) into the quick sand. 1802 Ibid. XX. 191 The drains were generally made two grafts deep. 1848 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. IX. i. 55, I then dug a trench..throwing the first graft of good soil on one side. |
2. A kind of spade, used in digging drains.
| 1894 S.E. Worc. Gloss., Graft or Grafting-tool, a narrow crescent-shaped spade used by drainers. |
▪ IV. graft, n.4 slang.
(grɑːft, -æ-)
[Perh. a transferred use of prec. in the original sense ‘digging’.]
a. Work, esp. hard work. b. A trade, craft.
| 1853 J. Rochfort Adv. Surveyor N.Z. v. 47, I could make more money by ‘hard graft’, as they call labour in the colonies. 1890 Glouc. Gloss., Graft, work. 1890 Melbourne Argus 16 Aug. 13/1 It is when hard graft has to be done..that they're troubled a bit. 1891 Sheffield Gloss., Suppl., Graft, work. ‘Well, I've got some graft to do now’. 1896 Pop. Sci. Jrnl. IV. 255 The roadster proper is distinguished from the tramp by having a ‘graft’ or in other terms a visible means of support. 1933 Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Nov. 20/3 Another three miles' tramping, and four hours' hard graft. 1968 Times 27 June 25/1 This view is that salvation..is to be won by long, hard graft by industrial management. 1971 Observer 14 Mar. 7/7 They're too busy turning down 14 per cent pay offers to fuss about the three-quarters of a million out of graft. |
▪ V. graft, n.5 colloq. (orig. U.S.).
(grɑːft, -æ-)
[Origin uncertain. Perhaps a use of graft n.4 ‘work’ (cf. job); but some authorities connect it with graft n.1 with the notion of ‘excrescence’.]
The obtaining of profit or advantage by dishonest or shady means; the means by which such gains are made, esp. bribery, blackmail, or the abuse of a position of power or influence; the profits so obtained.
| 1865 Nat. Police Gaz. (N.Y.) 8 July 1/3 'Twas handy that we were so related, as, when about a ‘graft’, or ‘doing stur’, both sisters could keep each other company. 1886 W. Newton Secrets Tramp Life Revealed 14 This ‘Guide’ cannot work this ‘graft’ alone, for he has to have a good supply for stock, a bag of ‘snide’ or base coins. 1889 in J. B. Thoburn Hist. Oklahoma (1916) I. xxix. 407 The enterprising individual sold water at so much a drink until he was ousted from his profitable graft. 1896 Ade Artie i. 3 To the church show—the charity graft. 1901 ‘J. Flynt’ World of Graft ii. 12 Chi ain't no free soup kitchen. The City Hall people want their graft just as much as I [sc. a criminal] do. 1903 H. Hapgood Autobiogr. Thief (1904) ii. 34 In those days..Moll-buzzing, as well as picking pockets in general, was an easy and lucrative graft. Ibid. x. 205 The boy had a much better chance to learn the graft than I had when a kid, for my father was an honest man. Ibid. 222, I was too sleepy those days to go out of town much on the graft. 1903 Daily Chron. 21 Oct., A Chicago paper has the headline, ‘Labour revolts at paying graft’. Ibid. 3 Nov. 5/3 Are you ready to support a government of law against a government of ‘graft’, an administration of the city's resources in the interest of the public and of the public treasury, against their dissipation for the benefit of a favoured few? 1904 Ibid. 17 Feb. 3/5 Glimpses are also given of the shady side of American politics, where ‘graft’ is only another word for plunder. 1904 Athenæum 30 Apr. 560 In New York ‘graft’ is thieves' patter for stealing. 1905 Daily Chron. 13 Sept. 5/2 It is now the turn of the War Department to start a campaign against ‘graft’ among the officials of the army. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 13 Oct. 5/4 Showing how Tammany robs the city, bribes the judges, protects criminals, and generally carries on the game of graft, an Americanism for bribery, corruption, and illicit commission. 1915 Lit. Digest (N.Y.) 21 Aug. 340/1 There is no evidence that Minister Sullivan received any money or participated in any way in what has come to be known as ‘graft’. 1928 Sat. Even. Post 4 Feb. 35/1 ‘We had a slick graft’ he told me, ‘We was taking about two hundred smackers a week.’ 1945 C. S. Lewis Hideous Strength xi. 301 Here was a world of plot within plot, crossing and double crossing, of lies and graft and stabbing in the back. 1970 Daily Tel. 13 Jan. 2/4 Victims in a wave of graft, corruption and fear were making regular payments for protection. |
b. attrib. and Comb.
| 1905 Daily Chron. 26 May 5/2 He..says he is tired of ‘graft’ politics and the sale of city franchises to monopolies [in Philadelphia]. 1908 Ibid. 24 Dec. 1/6 During the hearing of the latest ‘graft’ scandal here [sc. in Pittsburgh] evidence was given that sixty members of the City Council received 45,000 dollars as bribe money. 1908 ‘O. Henry’ Gentle Grafter 48 I'd like, myself, to hedge a bet or two in the graft game. 1910 Westm. Gaz. 4 Apr. 7/2 He expressed himself as overwhelmed with..shame at the stain which had been revealed by the graft exposures upon the fame of the city [sc. Pittsburgh]. 1955 D. W. Maurer in Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xxiv. 150 Is there already a well-established, well-oiled graft-machine set up to process all fixed cases? |
▪ VI. graft, v.1
(grɑːft, -æ-)
Forms: α. 5 grafte, 6– graft. β. 6–7 grift(e, 9 dial. grift. γ. 9 dial. greft.
[variant of graff v. See graft n.1]
1. trans. To insert (a shoot from one tree) as a graft (see graft n.1) into another tree. Const. in, into, on, upon. Also with advs. in, together.
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 162/1 To Grafte, inserere, surculare. 1535 Coverdale Isa. xvii. 10 Thou hast also set a fayre plante, & grafted a straunge braunch. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 36 He shall get Grifts to graft. 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece ii. iii. 362 Upon the white English sort of Jessamine, now graft the Spanish. 1859 Darwin Orig. Spec. ix. (1873) 245 No one has been able to graft together trees belonging to quite distinct families. |
b. transf. and fig. To insert or fix in or upon something, with the result of producing a vital or indissoluble union. (Cf. sense 6.)
| 1531 Tindale Exp. 1 John ii. (1538) 23 All they that are grafted into Christe to followe hys doctrine. 1548–9 (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Communion (Collect ad fin.), Graunt..that the wordes..may through thy grace, bee so grafted inwardly in our heartes. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. xxv. §5. 110 God..doth grift his revelations and holy doctrine upon the notions of our reason. 1650 Fuller Pisgah 389 Each of them [pillars] having half a cubit of their shaft lost in their height, as running in, and hid in his Chapiter grafted upon it. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) III. 99 The horns may in every respect, be resembled to a vegetable substance, grafted upon the head of an animal. 1786 Sir J. Reynolds Disc. xiii. (1876) 73 No Art can be grafted with success on another art. 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 149, I have observed that dyspepsy is often grafted upon an hysterical or hypochondriacal diathesis. 1856 Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. i. 2 The Northern nations grafted the religion and the laws of the Western empire on their own hardy natures. 1876 E. Mellor Priesth. 208 The Lord's Supper, while a new institution, was in its forms grafted upon the Paschal meal. |
c. intr. for refl. rare (? U.S.).
| 1884 Horner Florence I. i. 24 The Florentine artist..only adopted those principles which grafted most readily on his preconceived ideas. 1894 Forum (U.S.) July 564 If possible, the theme should graft on to a vigorous and well grown stock of native interest. |
2. absol. and intr. To insert a graft or grafts. Const. as in sense 1.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §415 If you graft vpon the Bough of a Tree, and cut off some of the old Boughs, the new Cions will perish. 1816 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 640 The method of propagating the cider-fruit trees in Herefordshire, is by grafting. 1860 Emerson Cond. Life, Power Wks. (Bohn) II. 332 Here is question, every spring, whether to graft with wax, or whether with clay. |
| transf. and fig. 1685 Loyal Poems 132 But of all Pates, Cit has the softest one; ‘The better’, cries the Wife, ‘to graft upon’. 1713 J. Warder True Amazons 154 If any of more Intellect..will graft upon this stock. |
3. trans. To fix a graft or grafts upon (a stock). Also vaguely, to perform the operation of grafting on (a tree), to produce (fruits) by grafting.
| 1624 Quarles Sion's Sonets xx. 8 To see my Stockes, so latelie grifted, sprout. 1707 Curios. in Husb. & Gard. 256 You graft it with Grafts of an Apple-tree. 1795 Knight in Phil. Trans. LXXXV. 292, I have since grafted some very old trees with cuttings from seedling apple-trees of five years old. 1823 Cobbett Weekly Reg. 12 July 98 Stocks have..been grafted with English cuttings. 1845 Florist's Jrnl. 77 On grafting the Chinese Azalea. 1887 Bowen Virg. Eclog. ix. 51 Graft thy pears, O Daphnis, the fruit thy sons shall enjoy. |
4. In loose or transf. uses: To plant, implant.
| 1562 Turner Baths Pref., Their nature whiche Almighty God grafted in them [the birds]. 1580 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 473 They that feare theyr vines will make too sharpe wine, must..graft next to them Mandrage. 1771 Muse in Min. 110 From page to page thro' Nature's folio flies, Where hoary wisdom grafts her aching eyes. |
5. Naut. To cover (a ring-bolt, block-strop, etc.) with a weaving of small cord or rope-yarns.
| c 1860 H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 31 How do you point and graft a rope? Ibid. 81 Two hammock lashings..pointed and grafted at the ends. |
6. Surg. To transplant (a piece of skin, tissue, etc.) into a different part of the body, or from one animal to another.
| 1868 Darwin Var. Anim. & Plants II. xxvii. 369 The tail of a pig has been grafted into the middle of its back. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 203 The experiment of grafting a portion of the extirpated pancreas outside the abdominal cavity in the muscles of the external walls. |
7. U.S. To repair (boots) by adding new soles and ‘foxing’ the uppers.
| 1859 in Bartlett Dict. Amer. |
▪ VII. graft, v.2 dial.
[Variant of graff v.2]
intr. To dig. Hence ˈgrafting vbl. n., in grafting-spade, -tool (see quots.).
| 1823 Crabb Technol. Dict., Grafting Tool, a kind of curved spade made very strong for the purpose of digging canals. 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal Mining, Grafting spade, a long narrow-plated spade for digging clay. Mod. dial. (Kent), A grafting-tool would suit best for digging that clite. |
▪ VIII. graft, v.3 slang.
[? transferred use of prec.; cf. graft n.4]
intr. To work. Hence ˈgrafting vbl. n.
| 1859 Hotten Slang Dict. 47 Graft, to go to work. 1878 Graphic 6 July 2/2 Perhaps in a generation or two Paddy will fail us. He will have become too refined for hard ‘grafting’. 1890 Melbourne Argus 9 Aug. 4/2 ‘You graftin' with him?’ ‘No, I'm with Johnson’. 1936 J. Curtis Gilt Kid ii. 19 ‘Where did you graft in Wandsworth?’ ‘Cleaner.’ 1958 Times 18 Oct. 3/3 But his 90 minutes in the middle were worth many nets, and he was quite imperturbable in the way he grafted along [at cricket]. 1966 A. Prior Operators xvi. 246 The great mass of mugs were law-abiding..doing as they were told, working, grafting. |
▪ IX. graft, v.4 colloq. (orig. U.S.).
(grɑːft, -æ-)
[f. graft n.5]
intr. To practise ‘graft’; to make money by shady or dishonest means.
| 1859 Nat. Police Gaz. (N.Y.) 14 May 3/4 Liz Thompson and her husband..do not intend going out to ‘graft’ until the summer season sets in, when they are going to Newport, Saratoga, and other fashionable watering resorts, at which game she made out so good last season. 1863 Illustr. London News 13 June 658/3, I am progressing wonderfully, and I expect Poll and Bob will be able to go out with me and graft (pick pockets) in a few days. 1895 McClure's Mag. Feb. 247/2 He had been ‘grafting’ with a ‘mob’ of pickpockets at county fairs. 1903 H. Hapgood Autobiogr. Thief (1904) ii. 48, I know some thieves who, although they have grafted for twenty-five years, have not yet ‘done time’. 1905 D. G. Phillips Plum Tree 61, I don't see how those in politics that don't graft, as they call it, are any better than those that do. Would they get office if they didn't help on the jobs of the grafters? 1960 Observer 25 Dec. 7/6 Anybody who had neglected to have a nice tickle during the late autumn would be out grafting for all he was worth. 1967 J. Morgan Involved 27 They used to graft together..they pulled one or two big capers. |
Hence ˈgrafting vbl. n.3 and ppl. a.
| 1859 Matsell Vocabulum 39 Grafting, working; helping another to steal. 1901 ‘J. Flynt’ World of Graft 78 They make their living, such as it is, by grafting. 1904 Treasury Oct. 8/2 We excel other countries in the phenomenal corruption of our city Governments and Legislatures. The evil system of ‘grafting’, so called, extends everywhere. 1912 F. J. Haskin Amer. Govt. 71 Large business houses felt the loss from the petty grafting of stamps by office boys. 1921 Glasgow Herald 13 June 9 The efforts of professional and grafting Irish agitators. 1960 Observer 25 Dec. 7/7 Christmas Day was not likely to be a big grafting day for various reasons. |