graft
UK/ɡɹɑːft/US/ɡɹæft/
graft 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 (1)
graft (plural grafts)
- 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.
- A branch or portion of a tree growing from such a shoot.
- A portion of living tissue used in the operation of autoplasty.
Verb (1)
graft (third-person singular simple present grafts, present participle grafting, simple past and past participle grafted)
- 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.
- To insert scions (grafts) from one tree, or kind of tree, etc., into another; to practice grafting.
- To implant a portion of (living flesh or akin) in a lesion so as to form an organic union.
- 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!1717, Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard.
- 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.2012 March 30, Joe Levy, “Rockers at Sea”, in The New York Times
- Synonyms:
- affix
- To cover, as a ring bolt, block strap, splicing, etc., with a weaving of small cord or rope yarns.
- To form a graft polymer
Noun (2)
graft (plural grafts)
- A ditch, a canal.
- 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,[…]1798 [1792], Memoirs of Science and the Arts, Transactions of the Society instituted at London for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, page 117
- A narrow spade used in digging drainage trenches.
Noun (3)
graft (countable and uncountable, plural grafts)
- Corruption in official life.
- Illicit profit by corrupt means, especially in public life.
- A criminal’s special branch of practice.
- A con job.
- A cut of the take (money).
- 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[…]?1910, O.R. Miller, The Reform Bulletin
- Work; labor requiring effort.
- 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.2022 August 16, Pippa Crerar, quoting Liz Truss, “Leaked audio reveals Liz Truss said British workers needed ‘more graft’”, in The Guardian
- A job or trade.
Verb (2)
graft (third-person singular simple present grafts, present participle grafting, simple past and past participle grafted)
Proper noun capitalized: Graft
Graft (plural Grafts)
- A surname.
graft meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
graft in Hindi
- ग्राफ्ट
graft in Tamil
- ஏமாற்றுவேலை, ஒட்ட வை, ஒட்டு முறை, கிளை, ஒட்டுக் கிளை, ஒட்டுச் செடி
graft in Marathi
- a graft
- कलम kalam
graft in Urdu
- graft
- پیوند paivand
More languagesFewer languages
- graft in Bengali
- গ্রাফ্ট, গ্রাফট
- graft in Telugu
- అంటుకట్టు aṇṭukaṭṭu
- graft in Malayalam
- ഒട്ടുമുകുളം, ഒട്ടിക്കൽ, നിവേശിപ്പിക്കൽ
- graft in Kannada
- ಬಿಂಕುಗಳಿಕೆ, ಮೋಸದ ಗಳಿಕೆ, ಕಸಿ, ಕಸಿಯುಂಟ
- graft in Punjabi
- ਗ੍ਰਾਫਟ
- graft in Gujarati
- ગ્રાફ્ટ
- graft in Odia
- ଗ୍ରାଫ୍ଟ, ଗ୍ରାଫ୍ଟ୍
- graft in Assamese
- কলম kolom
- graft in Nepali
- ग्राफ्ट, ग्र्याफ्ट, ग्राफ्ट गर्न
- graft in Arabic
- طُعْم ṭuʕm
- graft in Indonesian
- cangkok, setek, enten, hasil pencangkokan
- graft in Persian
- پیوند زدن peyvand zadan
Examples of graft in a sentence
- In general, the technique resulted in faster healing, less car formation, and less contracture than pinch grafting.
- A similar effect is obtained by binding the shy rooter with wire immediately above the graft.
- Co-transplantation of autologous MSCs delays islet allograft rejection and generates a local immunoprivileged site for graft survival.
Synonyms of graft
Forms of graft
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | grafts |
| alternative form (archaic) | graff |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | grafts |
| present participle | grafting |
| past participle | grafted |
| past | grafted |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Grafts |
Origin of graft
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.
Words formed from graft
- allograft
- antigraft
- anti-graft
- autograft
- bone graft
- cleftgraft
- dendrigraft
- downgraft
- endograft
- engraft
- graftage
- graftectomy
- graftless
- graftling
- graft polymer
- graft-versus-host
- graft-versus-host disease
- heterograft
- homograft
- hypergraft
- intergraft
- intragraft
- isograft
- lipograft
- micrograft
- orthograft
- perigraft
- postgraft
- regraft
- skin graft
- syngraft
- transgraft
- whip graft
- white graft
- xenograft
- zoograft
- graftable
- graft the forked tree
- misgraft
- grafting tool
- graftproof
- grafter
- grift
Phrases with graft
Words that rhyme with graft
Questions about graft
- What does graft mean?
- Graft means 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.
- What is graft in Hindi?
- Graft in Hindi is ग्राफ्ट. See Graft meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is graft?
- Graft can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce graft?
- Graft is pronounced /ɡɹɑːft/ (UK).
- What is the plural of graft?
- The plural of graft is grafts.
Words near graft in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: graft (page history and authors); Graft (page history and authors); graft (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); graft (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); कलम (Marathi) (page history and authors); پیوند (Urdu) (page history and authors); graft (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); graft (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); graft (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); graft (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); graft (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); graft (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); graft (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-graft.ogg.
Cite this entry: “graft.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/graft. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.