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# graft

«graft» in Mova's school dictionary: **a piece of skin, bone or other body tissue moved by a…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (graft, grafts — for plants and skin; graft, uncountable — work, corruption); verb (graft, grafts, grafted, grafting)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A graft is a piece of skin, bone or other body tissue moved by a surgeon to repair another part of the body. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/graft/#m1)

2) A graft is also a cut piece of a plant joined onto another plant so they grow together. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/graft/#m2)

3) (UK, Australia, informal) Graft is hard work. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/graft/#m3)

4) (US) Graft is dishonest use of power to get money, like a bribe. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/graft/#m4)

5) As a verb, to graft means to join a plant or tissue onto another, or (UK informal) to work hard. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/graft/#m5)

### sense in the lessons

In science, grafting lets gardeners grow a tasty apple branch on a strong root; most fruit trees are grafted. In medicine, a skin graft helps burns heal. In UK and Australian everyday talk, «hard graft» praises someone's effort. In US news, graft means corruption by officials.

### examples

- The surgeon used a skin graft to cover the burn. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/graft/#x1)
- Grandad grafted a pear branch onto the old tree. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/graft/#x2)
- Most apple trees are grown by grafting. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/graft/#x3)
- (UK) It took a lot of hard graft to build the shed. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/graft/#x4)
- (UK) He's a real grafter; he never stops working. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/graft/#x5)
- (US) The mayor went to prison for graft. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/graft/#x6)
- (Australia) Winning the cup took years of graft. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/graft/#x7)
- The bone graft helped her broken leg heal. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/graft/#x8)

### note

Be careful: in British and Australian English «graft» is a good thing (hard work), but in American English it is a bad thing (corruption). A person who works hard is a «grafter» (UK).

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «graft» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/graft/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.