Lexigame Community

General Category => Words => Topic started by: blackrockrose on September 14, 2019, 02:06:50 PM

Title: grift common?
Post by: blackrockrose on September 14, 2019, 02:06:50 PM: Sorry Alan, but I think I'm going to become a serial pest about common words turning up in 7-by-many, now my favourite version of Chi (although I'm not particularly good at it) >:(

I've never heard of 'grift' (yesterday's 7-by-many GRATIFY game) and it appears to be US slang.
Title: Re: grift common?
Post by: mkenuk on September 14, 2019, 05:13:07 PM: I think originally it was American, a corruption (no pun intended) of graft (= 'cheat, swindle'), but I think it's become almost universally known now, thanks in part to classic films such as The Sting.
There was also an excellent 1990 film called The Grifters with a cast that included Anjelica Huston and Annette Bening, and the word was often used in the long-running BBC comedy/crime series Hustle .
Title: Re: grift common?
Post by: Jacki on September 14, 2019, 05:40:38 PM: Definitely familiar with grift, grifter etc. A scam or a swindler, hustler etc
Title: Re: grift common?
Post by: blackrockrose on September 14, 2019, 07:12:16 PM: I stand corrected :D
Title: Re: grift common?
Post by: anona on September 14, 2019, 09:51:59 PM: Well, me too. I didn't know it, though the more I let it float around in my brain I wonder if it's been raised before, linked to The Sting?
Title: Re: grift common?
Post by: TRex on September 15, 2019, 01:04:19 AM: The word grift has frequently appeared in puzzles.
Title: Re: grift common?
Post by: Katzmeow on September 15, 2019, 03:43:46 PM: I've come across it so often in movies & tv shows that I wouldn't blink an eye at it.
Title: Re: grift common?
Post by: mkenuk on September 16, 2019, 10:44:24 PM: I watched The Sting again a few nights ago. One of my all-time favourites, I never tire of watching it.

I counted at least fifteen uses of grift / grifter / grifting etc in the first 40 minutes or so, then I stopped counting.
Title: Re: grift common?
Post by: blackrockrose on September 17, 2019, 09:47:26 AM: I'm beginning to feel as if I've been living under a rock for the last couple of decades. How could I have missed it? ???
Title: Re: grift common?
Post by: Ozzyjack on September 17, 2019, 10:57:44 AM: Was it a black rock, Rose? ;)
Title: Re: grift common?
Post by: Jacki on September 17, 2019, 12:50:01 PM: You're funny - that made me laugh out loud!
Title: Re: grift common?
Post by: blackrockrose on September 17, 2019, 02:18:15 PM: Definitely, Ozzyjack!
Title: Re: grift common?
Post by: Hobbit on September 17, 2019, 09:44:20 PM: (https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/b1EAAOSwG6pcwtTd/s-l400.jpg)
Very good!
Title: Re: grift common?
Post by: blackrockrose on September 19, 2019, 04:19:53 PM: I'm proud to announce that, as a result of my expanded vocabulary thanks to Chi, I was able to find 'grift' when it recurred in yesterday's 7-by-many REFRIGERATE/FRIGATE game :-)
Title: Re: grift common?
Post by: mkenuk on September 19, 2019, 06:09:50 PM: ......and grifter as well, I hope!!
Title: Re: grift common?
Post by: blackrockrose on September 19, 2019, 06:42:00 PM: Yes I got that too, but unfortunately it was classed as rare :(
Title: Re: grift common?
Post by: mkenuk on September 21, 2019, 10:41:59 PM: Listening to some Ella Fitzgerald, I came across: -

'I've wined and dined on mulligan stew
And never asked for turkey,
As I hitched and hiked and grifted too
From Maine to Albuquerque'

The introduction to one of Rodgers and Hart's best known songs - The Lady is a Tramp (1937) from a musical show called Babes in Arms.

Funny how these words turn up unexpectedly.

'Mulligan Stew' apparently was a kind of soup/broth made from leftovers of leftovers - this was the time of the Great Depression of course.