root1
¦ noun
1. a part of a plant normally below ground, which acts as a support and collects water and nourishment.
a turnip, carrot, or other vegetable which grows as a root.
2. the embedded part of a bodily organ or structure such as a hair.
3. the basic cause, source, or origin: money is the root of all evil.
(roots) family, ethnic, or cultural origins as the reasons for one's emotional attachment to a place or community.
[as modifier] (roots) denoting something from a non-Western ethnic or cultural origin: roots music.
4. Linguistics a morpheme, not necessarily surviving as a word in itself, from which words have been made by the addition of prefixes or suffixes or by other modification.
5. (also root note) Music the fundamental note of a chord.
6. (in biblical use) a descendant.
7. Mathematics a number or quantity that when multiplied by itself one or more times gives a specified number or quantity.
a value of an unknown quantity satisfying a given equation.
8. Austral./NZ & Irish vulgar slang an act of sexual intercourse.
¦ verb
1. (with reference to a plant or cutting) establish or cause to establish roots.
2. establish deeply and firmly.
(be rooted in) have as a source or origin.
3. [often as adjective rooted] cause to stand immobile through fear or amazement.
4. (root someone/thing out/up) find and get rid of someone or something.
5. Austral./NZ & Irish vulgar slang have sex with.
exhaust or frustrate.
Phrases
at root fundamentally.
put down roots begin to have a settled life in a place.
root and branch (of a process or operation) thorough or radical.
take root become fixed or established.
Derivatives
rootedness noun
rootless adjective
rootlessness noun
rootlet noun
root-like adjective
rooty adjective
Origin
OE
rot, from ON
rot; related to
wort.
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root2
¦ verb
1. (of an animal) turn up the ground with its snout in search of food.
search or rummage.
2. (root for) informal support enthusiastically.
(root someone on) N. Amer. informal cheer or urge someone on.
¦ noun an act of rooting.
Origin
OE wrotan, of Gmc origin; related to OE wrot 'snout'.