graft

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   cause to grow together parts from different plants

   graft the cherry tree branch onto the plum tree

2. 2
   verb

   To 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!

3. 3
   noun

   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 drain,[…]

4. 4
   noun

   A 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 privilege of selling liquor before 1 p.m. on Sunday[…]?

5. 5
   noun

   Work; labor requiring effort.

   We had to put in a lot of hard graft to get the job done.

6. 6
   noun

   the act of grafting something onto something else

7. 7
   noun

   the practice of offering something (usually money) in order to gain an illicit advantage

8. 8
   noun

   (surgery) tissue or organ transplanted from a donor to a recipient

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.