graft
noun/ɡrɑːft/
/ɡræft/
- [countable] a piece cut from a living plant and fixed in a cut made in another plant, so that it grows there; the process or result of doing this
- A healthy shoot should form a strong graft.
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- [countable] a piece of skin, bone, etc. removed from a living body and placed in another part of the body that has been damaged; the process or result of doing this
- Linda had to undergo four skin grafts.
- If the skin graft takes, surgeons will do another operation a few weeks later.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- bone
- skin
- do
- undergo
- take
- [uncountable] (British English, informal) hard work
- Their success was the result of years of hard graft.
Extra Examples- Most of the graft was done for them by their assistants.
- Starting a new business involves a lot of hard graft.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- hard
- do
- [uncountable] (especially North American English) the use of illegal or unfair methods, especially bribery, to gain advantage in business, politics, etc.; money obtained in this way
- He promised an end to graft and corruption in public life.
Word Originnoun senses 1 to 2 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. noun sense 3 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’. noun sense 4 mid 19th cent.: of unknown origin.
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