Meanings
plural grifts
- USslangA confidence game or swindle.First known use 1906
Hey, what's the grift? What are you trying to pull?
1 more example
‘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.’
2022, Paul McAuley, Beyond the Burn Line, Gollancz, page 172Synonyms: deception, imposition, hype, deceit, dupery, fiddle, fetch, hocus-pocus
present singular third person grifts · participle present grifting · participle past grifted · past grifted
- USintransitiveslangTo obtain money illegally.First known use early 20th c.
- USintransitiveslangTo obtain money immorally or through deceitful means.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA confidence game or swindle.
Origin
- Middle Dutchgraft“digging, ditch, canal, trench”
- Englishgrift
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”).
More words from Middle Dutch
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Danish svindle
- svindleto obtain (money) illegally, as by con game
German erschwindeln
- erschwindelnto obtain (money) illegally, as by con game
Hungarian kicsal
- kicsalto obtain (money) illegally, as by con game
Polish wyłudzać, wyłudzić
- wyłudzaćto obtain (money) illegally, as by con game
- wyłudzićto obtain (money) illegally, as by con game
Spanish estafa, fraude
- estafato obtain (money) illegally, as by con game
- fraudeto obtain (money) illegally, as by con game
- timoto obtain (money) illegally, as by con game
- engañoto obtain (money) illegally, as by con game
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with grift
Cite this entry
grift. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/grift
“grift.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/grift. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “grift,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/grift.
Source: grift on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.