grift

English

Etymology

US criminal underworld slang, 1906 (noun), 1915 (verb), thinning alteration of graft.[1][2][3] The lighter sound (‘a’ → ‘i’, /ɑː/ or /æ/ → /ɪ/) is associated with more subtle, sophisticated crime; compare swindle.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɡɹɪft/
  • Rhymes: -ɪft

Noun

grift (plural grifts)

  1. A confidence game or swindle.
    Hey, what's the grift? What are you trying to pull?

Synonyms

  • See also Thesaurus:deception

Translations

Verb

grift (third-person singular simple present grifts, present participle grifting, simple past and past participle grifted)

  1. (transitive) To obtain illegally, as by con game.
  2. (intransitive) To obtain money illegally.

References

  1. ↑ “grift” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2018.
  2. ↑ A Dictionary of the Underworld: British and American, Eric Partridge (2015), p. 307
  3. ↑ Word Origins...And How We Know Them: Etymology for Everyone, Anatoly Liberman (2009), p. 32
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