noun
grift
grihft
noun
1
A scheme for swindling people out of money, usually through trickery rather than force.
"The whole charity was just a grift dressed up as a good cause."
"He ran the same grift in three different states before anyone caught on."
verb
1
To make money through deception or a con.
"She grifted her way through a dozen fake investment schemes."
"He was grifting off gullible fans for years before it caught up with him."
How to Use Grift
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishA con or scam, or the act of running one — making money by fooling people rather than earning it honestly.
Common mistake
Grift implies calculated deception for profit, not just any ordinary hustle or hard work.
Common pairings
run a grift
the whole thing is a grift
grift money off someone
Word Forms
grifted past tense, grifts plural, grifts singular
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The whole charity was just a _____ dressed up as a good cause.
Etymology
Emerged around 1906 in American criminal slang as a twist on graft ("illicit profit"), itself traced back to a Middle Dutch word for digging a ditch — the idea being that a grifter "digs" money out of people.