grift

American criminal underworld slang, 1906 (noun), 1915 (verb), alteration of graft (“corruption, illicit profit through corrupt means, bribe, one's occupation”), alteration perhaps influenced by similar sounding words, e.g. drift, etc., probably ultimately from Middle Dutch graft (“digging, ditch, canal, trench”) (modern Dutch gracht), related to Dutch graven (“to dig”), English grave (“to dig”).^[1][2][3]

• IPA^(key): /ɡɹɪft/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪft

grift (plural grifts)

1. (US, slang) A confidence game or swindle. [from 1906]

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:deception

   Hey, what's the grift? What are you trying to pull?

   • 2022, Paul McAuley, Beyond the Burn Line, Gollancz, page 172:

     ‘Sounds like he’s trying to stretch out his grift for as long as possible,’ Gentle said. ‘Taking as much from his followers as he can before it falls apart.’

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

1. (transitive, US, slang) To obtain illegally, as by con game. [from early 20th c.]
2. (intransitive, US, slang) To obtain money illegally. [from early 20th c.]
3. (intransitive, US, slang) To obtain money immorally or through deceitful means.

Inherited from Old Swedish gript f, gripter m. Either a verbal noun related to gräva, or influenced by Latin crypta.

Compare origin of krypta, kryptisk, krypto, grotta, grotesk, grav, gräva, gruva.

grift c

1. (archaic except in some compounds) a grave

   Synonym: grav

• griftefrid
• griftetal
• gånggrift

• grift in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• grift in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• grift in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
• grift in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)