grift

[ grift ]

noun

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

verb (used without object)

1. to profit by the use of grift:

   a man known to have grifted for many years.

verb (used with object)

1. to obtain (money or other profit) by grift.

Word History and Origins

Origin of grift¹

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

Example Sentences

She doesn’t find much if anything to like about the field, which she sees as a hive of people aiming to take advantage of the innocent and unwary — the facetious subtitle of her Web3 website calls it “definitely not an enormous grift that’s pouring lighter fluid on our already smoldering planet.”

From Los Angeles Times

“This was all a political marketing masquerading as a lottery. That’s what it is. A grift,” Krasner testified.

From Salon

“They grift off their relationship to him.”

From Slate

But as with everything else associated with Trump, the whole project appears to be one part grift and one part vengeance with loyalists already backstabbing each other and currying favor with the Dear Leader.

From Salon

Donald Trump’s firehose of fabrication and grift has reached such a peak in recent days — from his ludicrous denunciation of Kamala Harris as “mentally disabled” to his hawking of cheap, cheesy watches for $100,000 in what has been widely interpreted as an invitation to bribery to his call for one “really violent day” of unleashed police action to fight crime — that choosing a single unhinged nugget to analyze is a true challenge.

From Los Angeles Times