subs. (common).—Work; employment; LAY (q.v.): e.g., What GRAFT are you on now? GREAT-GRAFT = profitable labour; GOOD BIZ (q.v.). Also GRAFTING and ELBOW-GREASE.
FRENCH SYNONYMS.—Le bastimage (thieves’); le goupinage (thieves’); la laine (tailors’); le maquillage (thieves’); le massage (popular); la masse; le mèche (printers’).
1878. Graphic, 6 July, p. 2. According to the well-known maxim in the building trade, ‘Scotch masons, Welsh blacksmiths, English bricklayers, Irish labourers.’… Perhaps in a generation or two Paddy will fail us. He will have become too refined for hard GRAFTING.
1887. W. E. HENLEY, Villon’s Straight Tip to all Cross Coves.
| The merry little dibbs you bag! | |
| At my GRAFT, no matter what. |
1892. Tit-Bits, 19 March, p. 417, c. 1. Millbank for thick shins and GRAFT at the pump.
Verb (common).—1. To work. Fr., bausser; membrer.
2. (American).—To steal.
3. (old).—To cuckold; to plant horns.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
