graft
verb/ɡrɑːft/
/ɡræft/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they graft | /ɡrɑːft/ /ɡræft/ |
| he / she / it grafts | /ɡrɑːfts/ /ɡræfts/ |
| past simple grafted | /ˈɡrɑːftɪd/ /ˈɡræftɪd/ |
| past participle grafted | /ˈɡrɑːftɪd/ /ˈɡræftɪd/ |
| -ing form grafting | /ˈɡrɑːftɪŋ/ /ˈɡræftɪŋ/ |
- [transitive] graft something (onto/to/into something) | graft something (on) (from something) to take a piece of skin, bone, etc. from a living body and attach it to a damaged part
- newly grafted tissue
- New skin had to be grafted on from his back.
- [transitive] graft something (onto something) to cut a piece from a living plant and attach it to another plantTopics Gardensc2
- [transitive] graft something (onto something) to make one idea, system, etc. become part of another one
- Old values are being grafted onto a new social class.
- [intransitive] (British English, informal) to work hard
- She’s been grafting all day.
Word Originverb senses 1 to 3 late Middle English graff, from Old French grafe, via Latin from Greek graphion ‘stylus, writing implement’ (with reference to the tapered tip of the scion), from graphein ‘write’. The final -t is typical of phonetic confusion between -f and -ft at the end of words; compare with tuft. verb sense 4 mid 19th cent.: perhaps related to the phrase spade's graft ‘the amount of earth that one stroke of a spade will move’, based on Old Norse grǫftr ‘digging’.
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graft