graff

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɡɹɑːf/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US, Northern England) IPA^(key): /ɡɹæf/
• Rhymes: -ɑːf, -æf
• Homophones: graph

Older variant of graft, q.v.

graff (plural graffs)

1. (botany, archaic) Alternative form of graft

graff (third-person singular simple present graffs, present participle graffing, simple past and past participle graffed)

1. (botany, archaic) Alternative form of graft
   • 1653-1694, Thomas Urquhart, Peter Anthony Motteux, Gargantua and Pantagruel‎, translation of original by Francois Rabelais, Book IV:

     Truly, said Pantagruel, if I live to go home--which I hope will be speedily, God willing--I'll set off and graff some in my garden in Touraine, by the banks of the Loire, and will call them bon-Christian or good-Christian pears, for I never saw better Christians than are these good Papimans.

   • 1823, William Stewart Rose, Orlando Furioso‎, translation of original by Ludovico Ariosto:

     For where men look for fruit they graff the tree, And study still the rising plant to train; And artist uses to refine the gold Designed by him the precious gem to hold.

From German Graf (“count”).

graff (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) A steward; an overseer.
   • 1559-1566, John Knox, History of the Reformation in Scotland

     [A prince] is nothing but a servant, overseer, or grieve, and not the head, which is a title belonging only to Christ.

graff (uncountable)

1. (slang) Clipping of graffiti.

• graffer

graff (plural graffs)

1. (slang, journalism) Alternative form of graf (“paragraph”)
   • 2008 September 19, Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Why is Hollywood ignoring She-Hulk?”, in The Atlantic‎:

     Were I not hooked-up, and old enough to be her father, I'd be stalking Alyssa Rosenberg because of the following graff: […]

graff m (plural graffs)

1. (slang) Clipping of graffiti.

• graffer

From Middle High German grof, northern variant of grop, from Proto-Germanic *grubaz. Cognate with German grob, Dutch grof. The form graff, graffen is generalised from the uninflected stem; the inflected stem yielded gruef, gruewen, which is attested dialectally (but had the disadvantage of merging with the verb gruewen (“to dig”)).

• IPA^(key): /ɡraf/, [ɡʀɑf]
• Rhymes: -ɑf

graff (masculine graffen, neuter grafft, comparative méi graff, superlative am graffsten)

1. rough, coarse
2. coarse, vulgar, crude
3. rugged, hard-wearing

Borrowing from English graph.

• IPA^(key): /ɡraf/
• Rhymes: -af

graff m (plural graffau or graffiau)

1. graph (mathematical diagram)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

• IPA^(key): /ɡraːf/

graff

1. Soft mutation of craff.