All 20 Uses of

graft

in

The Jungle, by Sinclair

He was an enormously rich man—he had a hand in all the big graft in the neighborhood.
Chpt 9 *

graft = corruption in which one uses their position to get money or other personal advantage

After Jurgis had been there awhile he would know that the plants were simply honeycombed with rottenness of that sort—the bosses grafted off the men, and they grafted off each other; and some day the superintendent would find out about the boss, and then he would graft off the boss.†
Chpt 5

After Jurgis had been there awhile he would know that the plants were simply honeycombed with rottenness of that sort—the bosses grafted off the men, and they grafted off each other; and some day the superintendent would find out about the boss, and then he would graft off the boss.†
Chpt 5

After Jurgis had been there awhile he would know that the plants were simply honeycombed with rottenness of that sort—the bosses grafted off the men, and they grafted off each other; and some day the superintendent would find out about the boss, and then he would graft off the boss.†
Chpt 5

There were a few colonies of them still here, enough to run all the unions and the police force and get all the graft; but most of those who were working in the packing houses had gone away at the next drop in wages—after the big strike.†
Chpt 6

The officials who ruled it, and got all the graft, had to be elected first; and so there were two rival sets of grafters, known as political parties, and the one got the office which bought the most votes.†
Chpt 9

In the same way Scully had all the jobs in the fire department at his disposal, and all the rest of the city graft in the stockyards district; he was building a block of flats somewhere up on Ashland Avenue, and the man who was overseeing it for him was drawing pay as a city inspector of sewers.†
Chpt 9

So indignant were the packers that they went farther, and compelled the mayor to abolish the whole bureau of inspection; so that since then there has not been even a pretense of any interference with the graft.†
Chpt 9

For his cell mate Jurgis had an Italian fruit seller who had refused to pay his graft to the policeman, and been arrested for carrying a large pocketknife; as he did not understand a word of English our friend was glad when he left.†
Chpt 17

Jurgis had often wondered just who ate the canned corned beef and "roast beef" of the stockyards; now he began to understand—that it was what you might call "graft meat," put up to be sold to public officials and contractors, and eaten by soldiers and sailors, prisoners and inmates of institutions, "shantymen" and gangs of railroad laborers.†
Chpt 23

The city, which was owned by an oligarchy of businessmen, being nominally ruled by the people, a huge army of graft was necessary for the purpose of effecting the transfer of power.†
Chpt 25

And this army of graft had, of course, to be maintained the year round.†
Chpt 25

It was the same with the gambling-house keeper and the poolroom man, and the same with any other man or woman who had a means of getting "graft," and was willing to pay over a share of it: the green-goods man and the highwayman, the pickpocket and the sneak thief, and the receiver of stolen goods, the seller of adulterated milk, of stale fruit and diseased meat, the proprietor of unsanitary tenements, the fake doctor and the usurer, the beggar and the "pushcart man," the prize fighter and the professional slugger, the race-track "tout," the procurer, the white-slave agent, and the expert seducer of young girls.†
Chpt 25

Early in April the city elections were due, and that meant prosperity for all the powers of graft.†
Chpt 25

For the criminal graft was one in which the businessmen had no direct part—it was what is called a "side line," carried by the police.†
Chpt 25

Tommy Hinds had begun life as a blacksmith's helper, and had run away to join the Union army, where he had made his first acquaintance with "graft," in the shape of rotten muskets and shoddy blankets.†
Chpt 30

The city government was in their hands and the railroads were in league with them, and honest business was driven to the wall; and so Hinds had put all his savings into Chicago real estate, and set out singlehanded to dam the river of graft.†
Chpt 30

It collected the stories of graft and misery from the daily press, and made a little pungent paragraphs out of them.†
Chpt 30 *

As no one makes any profit by the sale, there is no longer any stimulus to extravagance, and no misrepresentation; no cheating, no adulteration or imitation, no bribery or 'grafting.'†
Chpt 31

Definitions:

(1) (graft as in: skin graft)
to artificially join two things; or the smaller of the items joined; or the location of the joining

Common examples are the grafting of a plant shoot to another plant stem or the grafting of skin tissue to replace skin lost due to fire or other accident. This sense of graft can also be used metaphorically as in "graft the provision onto the legislative bill."
(2) (graft as in: graft and corruption)
corruption in which one uses their position to gain personal advantage -- especially political corruption