grift

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 10, 2025 is: grift \GRIFT\ verb To grift is to use dishonest tricks to illegally take money or property. // The email scammer shamelessly grifted thousands of dollars from unwitting victims. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grift) Examples: "When the families demanded he return the jewellery he had grifted from them he arranged meetings and then did not show." — Peter Spriggs, The Echo (South Essex, England), 31 Oct. 2025 Did you know? Someone who grifts is a thief, but of a particular sort: they illegally obtain money or property by means of cleverness or deceit, and do not usually resort to physical force or violence. A [grifter](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grifter) might be a pickpocket, a crooked gambler, a scammer, or a con artist. The most plausible etymology we have for the murky term is that grift is an early 20th century alteration of [graft](https://bit.ly/4qVWV4z), a slightly older word which refers to the acquisition of money or property in dishonest or questionable ways. Both grift and graft have noun and verb forms.