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Noun
Xi once sought to single out officials to deter graft in the wider ranks — killing the chicken to scare the monkeys, as Beijing put it.—Semafor Events, semafor.com, 30 June 2025 Under the system of graft O’Connor devised, out-of-town crooks checked in with an underworld go-between, who would collect their name, address and a cash bribe.—Nick Woltman, Twin Cities, 28 June 2025
Verb
And in the process of remaking their roster and attempting to graft elite skill into their lineup, the Hurricanes may look to shed some commitments and reallocate cap space to more offensively gifted forwards.—Thomas Drance, New York Times, 2 June 2025 Of the 36 studies examined in this domain, the overwhelming majority focused on deepfake abuse, a disturbing trend in which AI models are used to graft real individuals’ faces digitally, often women, minors and public figures, onto explicit content without their consent.—Ximena Araya-Fischel, Forbes.com, 19 May 2025 See All Example Sentences for graft
Word History
Etymology
Noun (1) and Verb (1)
Middle English graffe, grafte, from Anglo-French greffe, graife stylus, graph, from Medieval Latin graphium, from Latin, stylus, from Greek grapheion, from graphein to write — more at carve
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