View synonyms for

grift

[ grift ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

(sometimes used with a plural verb) a group of methods for obtaining money falsely through the use of swindles, frauds, dishonest gambling, etc.
money obtained from such practices.

verb (used without object)

to profit by the use of grift:
a man known to have grifted for many years.

verb (used with object)

to obtain (money or other profit) by grift.

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Word History and Origins

Origin of grift¹

First recorded in 1910–15; perhaps alteration of graft ²

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

And because no right-wing grift is complete without it, there's now a crypto memecoin exploiting the incident.

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I worry that Pornchai has alterior motives when he rushed to have her stay and open a spa in Thailand, but I think the Russians will corner the market on the grift.

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Digital-asset evangelists are especially sensitive to the climate critiques, which popped up time and again during the pandemic-era crypto bubble as myriad celebrities—even the nominally environmentalist ones—got in on the grift.

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Venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale, who co-founded Palantir Technologies and is a Trump supporter, said on X: “It’s wrong to steal my money for grift on the left; it’s also wrong to tax me for crypto bro schemes.”

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“When did everything turn into a grift?” asks a young man named Tobey midway through Brian Castleberry’s “The Californians,” an ambitious, widescreen novel about the ugliness that often ensues when art and commerce collide.

From

griffon grifter

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