Meaning
1 senses(US, slang)A confidence game or swindle.
Hey, what's the grift? What are you trying to pull?
Examples
3 sentencesRoyalty is one of the world's biggest grifts.
Charter schools are a grift.
It's a grift.
Origin
American criminal underworld slang, 1906 (noun), 1915 (verb), alteration of graft (“corrupAmerican 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”).
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