▪ I. root, n.1
(ruːt)
Forms: α. 1, 5 rot, 3–6 rote, 4 rotte, 5 roth, roytt, rowte, 6 rott, roite, rout(e, rowth, 9 dial. roit; 4–7 roote, 5– root. β. Sc. 5–6 rut, 6 ruite, rwit, 5– rute, 6– ruit, 9 reet, rit; north. 9 reut, rut, re(e)at.
[Late OE. rót, a. ON. rót (Icel. and Fær. rót), Norw. and Sw. rot (MSw. root), Da. rod († rood), NFris. rôt, rut (prob. from ODa.), LG. rut. The original stem *wrōt- is connected on the one hand with L. rādīx, and on the other with OE. wyrt: see wort. The usual OE. words for ‘root’ are wyrttruma and wyrtwala.]
I. 1. a. That part of a plant or tree which is normally below the earth's surface; in Bot., the descending axis of a plant, tree, or shoot, developed from the radicle, and serving to attach the plant to and convey nourishment from the soil, with or without subsidiary rootlets or fibres; also applied to the corresponding organ of an epiphyte, and to the rootlets attaching an ivy to its support.
| a 1150 in Napier Contrib. O.E. Lex. 54 Se Godes freond cwæð þæt he leofode be weode & be wyrtan roten & be wæteres drence. Ibid., He leofede be wyrtan rotan. a 1175 in Hist. Holy Rood-tree 4 An fet..wæs ifylled of þæt ylce watere & þa ȝyrdæ þeron asette, forþan ðe he nolde þæt ða roten fordruȝode wæron. c 1200 Ormin 10064 Þatt axe shollde þa beon sett Rihht att te treowwess rote. a 1300 in E.E.P. (1862) 10 Þer nis..no tre in erþ so fast, mid al har rotis so fast ipiȝt, þat [etc.]. a 1300 Cursor M. 1346 Þis tre was of a mikel heght.., And to þe rotte [Gött. rote] he kest his he. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. vii. 96 Mi plouh-pote schal be my pyk, and posshen atte Rootes. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 7 Now stant the crop under the rote. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 437/2 Rote, of a thynge growynge, radix. 1483 Cath. Angl. 314/2 A Rute, radix, radicula. 1513 Douglas æneis iv. viii. 80 Als far his ruite doith spreid Deip ondir erth. 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 98 Get..a parer..to pare away grasse and to raise vp the roote. 1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, i. ii. 97 Though we leaue it with a roote thus hackt, The Ayre will drinke the Sap. 1672–3 Grew Anat. Pl. (1682) 128 What the Mouth is to an Animal; that the Root is to a Plant. 1750 Gray Elegy 102 Yonder nodding beech, That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high. 1792 J. Belknap Hist. New Hampsh. III. 108 When the roots have been loosened by the frost, they are..cut and dug out of the ground. 1815 Shelley Alastor 531 Ancient pines Branchless and blasted, clenched with grasping roots The unwilling soil. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. II. 383 In transplanting walnuts,..great care should be taken that their roots be as little injured as possible. 1884 Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 438 In the growing-point of the stem, branches, and roots, and in young rudimentary leaves. |
b. In
phr. by the root(s), denoting the complete pulling up of a plant or tree. (
Cf. 9 c.)
| c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 2613 Hypermnestra, The floure, the lefe, ys rent vp by the rote To maken garlandes. c 1400 Mandeville, (Roxb.) xvii. 79 So þat þai be taken vp by þe rutes. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 131 Drawe vp by þe rote, eradico. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 23 He..plucketh vp the breers, wedes and grasse by the rotes. 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, v. iv. 69 Yonder stands the thornie Wood, Which..Must by the Roots be hew'ne vp yet ere Night. 1648 Milton Ps. lxxx. 54 The tusked Boar out of the wood Up turns it by the roots. 1667 ― P.L. ii. 544 As when Alcides..tore Through pain up by the roots Thessalian Pines. 1765 A. Dickson Treat. Agric. (ed. 2) 112 The weeds themselves must be pulled up by the root. 1833 H. Martineau Briery Creek ii. 26 They could pull up a tall tree by the roots. |
c. Used without article; also in phrases as
to take root, to settle properly in the ground,
to make root,
strike root.
| c 1386 Chaucer Sqr.'s T. 153 Euery gras that groweth vp on roote. 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 265 For a tree may not take þer [L. ibi] roote for saltenes of the erthe. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 437 Rotyn, or take rote, as treys, radico. c 1480 Henryson Fables, Trial Fox xxx, Ouer Ron and Rute thay ran togidder raith. c 1560 A. Scott Poems (S.T.S.) xxxv. 9 He sall haif brute, as tre on rute Endlang the rever plantit. 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 83 Thy garden plot..Well clensed and purged of roote and of stone. 1611 Bible Ps. lxxx. 9 Thou..didst cause it to take deepe root, and it filled the land. 1707 Mortimer Husb. 7 This will cause it to strike fresh Root. 1725 Fam. Dict. s.v. Root-grafting, Which Piece of Root will draw in Sap, and nourish the Graft. 1738 Wesley Ps. lxxx. xi, Water'd with Blood, the Vine took Root. 1856 Glenny Everyday Bk. 263 The object of this is to let them make root when inclined, but not to grow any until wanted. 1878 Browning La Saisiaz 29 Fruit Others reap and garner, heedless how produced by stalk and root. |
d. In
phr. on (its) own roots, used to describe a plant whose tissues all developed from the same embryo; not grafted or budded.
| [1822 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Gardening ii. 436 The scion is a part of the living vegetable, which, united or inserted in a stock or other vegetable of the same nature, identifies with it, and grows there as on its natural stem and roots.] 1869 S. R. Hole Bk. about Roses viii. 112 The two trees..are on their own roots, but the Rose thrives stoutly on the Brier and the Manetti, budded and grafted, wherever roses grow. 1914 H. H. Thomas Gardening for Amateurs 696/1 Plants may grow rampantly on their own roots to the material disadvantage of any useful products. 1944 Kains & McQuesten Propagation of Plants (rev. ed.) xiv. 334 Why do not nurserymen sell us plants on their own roots? The answer is that in no other way [than grafting] can fruit trees true to name be propagated so rapidly. 1968 Horticultural Abstr. XXXVIII. 630/2 Gialla Precoce Morettini on its own roots flowered earlier on a sandy soil than on a clay soil. |
2. The permanent underground stock of a plant from which the stems or leaves are periodically produced; also, by extension, a plant, herb.
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 161 [It] is cleped..wildernesse gef þare manie rotes onne wacseð. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 36 The herb gude to give the cattel against the rute that thay cal trifoly. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, ii. iv. 39 As Gardeners doe with Ordure hide those Roots That shall first spring, and be most delicate. 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. April (1671) 48 Transplant such Fibrous roots..as Violets, Hepatica, Primroses. 1786 Abercrombie Gard. Assist., Arr. 81 The propagation of bulbous and tuberous roots for general supply. 1847 J. W. Loudon Amateur Gard. Monthly Cal. 22/1 Others succeed pretty well by buying imported roots from the nurseryman every year. 1858 Kingsley Poems 137 That roots, which parch in burning sand, May bud to flower and fruit again. |
3. a. The underground part of a plant used for eating or in medicine; now
spec. in
Agric., one of a fleshy nature, as the turnip or carrot, and by extension, any plant of this kind.
| a 1150 [see sense 1]. c 1200 Ormin 3213 Hiss drinnch wass waterr.., Hiss mete wilde rotess. c 1205 Lay. 31885 Þat folc..lufeden bi wurten, bi moren and bi rote. 13.. Cursor M. 4711 (Gött.), Þe wrecched pore miht find na fode,..Þat soght þaim rotis als þe suyn. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xvi. 244 Bestes [live] by gras & by greyn and by grene rotes. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) viii. 30 Þai liffe with dates and rutes and herbes. c 1489 Caxton Blanchardyn xxi. 70 He hath in his house a rote that ..shal gyf me help. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon xxi. 63, I haue eten none other thynge but rootes & frutes. 1551 Turner Herbal (1568) 21 It is euidently knowen that water wyll wexe thycke, if this roite be brused and put in it. 1605 Shakes. Macb. i. iii. 84 Or haue we eaten on the insane Root, That takes the Reason Prisoner? 1617 Moryson Itin. i. 34 Corne fields set with cabbages and roots. 1671 Milton P.R. i. 339 We here Live on tough roots and stubs, to thirst inur'd More then the Camel. 1704 F. Fuller Med. Gymn. (1711) 94 These Roots may be so manag'd by a good Hand as to eat as Food. 1763 Museum Rust. I. 332 This root would..fill them up with flashy fat. 1801 Farmer's Mag. Jan. 113 Very few turnips are with us this season; this root having generally failed. 1817 Shelley Rev. Isl. v. lvi. 5 Melons, and dates, and figs, and many a root Sweet and sustaining. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 237/1 Cattle require their ‘roots’ to be carted from the field to the homestead. |
b. With defining words: (see
quots.).
| 1787 Gentl. Mag. Nov. 963/1 The Mangel Wurtz..or Root of Scarcity. 1789 Trans. Soc. Arts VII. 33 The cows fed on the Common Turnep gave most milk..and those on the Root of Scarcity the least. 1801 Farmer's Mag. Jan. 87 In the mean time, all, rich and poor, have the greatest abundance of the root of plenty, potatoes. |
c. U.S. dial. A spell effected by the supposedly magical properties of certain roots.
Cf. root doctor,
worker, sense 23 below.
| 1935 Z. N. Hurston Mules & Men 340 Nearly all of the conjure doctors practice ‘roots’. 1962 Jrnl. Amer. Folklore LXXV. 313 Local synonyms for the spell are ‘curse’, ‘trick’, ‘fix’, ‘conjure’, ‘root’, and ‘hoodoo’. |
4. a. The imbedded or basal portion of the hair, tongue, teeth, fingers, nails, or other members or structures of the body.
| a 1225 Leg. Kath. 2122 [To] þurhdriuen hire tittes wið irnene neiles, & renden ham up hetterliche wið þe breoste roten. c 1320 Sir Tristr. 1485 His tong haþ he ton And schorn of bi þe rote. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xxviii. (Bodl. MS.), Þese boones stonde of twey ordres in þe oone side with þe rootes of þe fingres. 1508 Kennedie Flyting w. Dunbar 374 The ravyns sall ryve na thing bot thy tong rutis. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §91 If they be not kilde, they wyl..eate the rotes of the horse eares, and kil hym. 1580 Blundevil Horsem. iv. cxvii. 54 A malander..hath long haires with stubborne roots. 1607 Shakes. Timon v. i. 136 Each false [word] Be as a Cantherizing to the root o' th' Tongue. 1681 Grew Musæum i. v. i. 85 Beneath, close by the Root of the Saw, are two oblique Nostrils. 1710 Lond. Gaz. No. 4672/4 A..Spanish Dog, with..one large Liver colour Spot at the Root of his Stern. 1798 Coleridge Anc. Mar. ii. xiii, Every tongue, through utter drought, Was withered at the root. 1817 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xix. (1818) II. 145 The rightful queen..seized her with her jaws near the root of the wings. 1856 Stonehenge Brit. Rural Sports 479/2 The root of the thumb should be brought close up to the ribs. 1898 Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 151 Most frequently it starts from the root of the lung. 1940 W. Faulkner Hamlet iii. ii. 198 The bleached hair darkening again at the roots since it had been a year now since there had been any money to buy more dye. 1970 G. F. Newman Sir, You Bastard viii. 213 Brown roots growing through her split blonde hair. |
b. The more or less ‘muddy’ base of a crystal or gem,
esp. of an emerald.
| 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth iv. (1723) 192 Their Root, as the Jewellers call it; which is only the Abruptness at that End of the Body whereby it adhered to the Stone. 1867 A. Billing Sci. of Gems 126 A large piece of veiny, cloudy root of amethyst, 2½ inches by 2 inches (not good enough to rank as a jewel). |
c. That part of anything by or at which it is united to something else.
| 1632 Lithgow Trav. i. 22 The breadth of Italy at the roote and beginning thereof,..from the Adriaticke coast, to the riviera di Genoa. 1840 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. III. 237/1 A wooden jetty has been run out from the root of the pier. 1869 E. J. Reed Ship Build. xx. 430 The angle iron..is liable to open at the root under very heavy blows. 1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 289 In watches the roots of all the wheels and pinions are left square except the roots of the barrel or great wheel teeth and the roots of the centre pinion leaves. 1910 Aëronaut. Jrnl. XIV. 115 The angle of incidence of each wing gradually decreases from the root to the tip. 1948 H. Constant Gas Turbines v. 77 The blades stall at the root and tip. 1978 D. Küchemann Aerodynamic Design of Aircraft vi. 429 The upwash generated by that part of the body ahead of the root of the gross wing should also be close to that generated by the portion of the gross wing ahead of the root and should again be small. |
d. slang The penis.
| 1846 Swell's Night Guide 119/1 Flash, to sport, to expose, he flashed his root. 1902 Farmer & Henley Dict. Slang V. 289/2. 1970 K. Millett Sexual Politics iii. vii. 329 It measures intelligence as ‘masculinity of mind’, condemns mediocre authors for ‘dead-stick prose’, praises good writers for setting ‘virile example’ and notes that since ‘style is root’ (penis), the best writing naturally requires ‘huge loins’. |
5. a. The bottom or base
of something material;
esp. the foot of a hill.
| c 1386 Chaucer Clerk's T. 58 At the West syde of Ytaille, Doun at the roote of Vesulus the colde. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 59 b/2 Whan moyses had brouht them forth unto the rote of the hylle they stode there. 1553 Eden Treat. New Ind. (Arb.) 20 Mountaynes..at the rootes wherof are found Rubines, Hiacinthes. 1579 Reg. Privy Council Scot. III. 189 That na thing remane within the clois about the rute of the tour bot the dur thairof. 1635–56 Cowley Davideis i. Poems (1905) 261 Numbers which still encrease more high and wide From One, the root of their turn'd Pyramide. 1687 Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. ii. 74 A rock.., at the root whereof there is a little spring of Water. 1726 Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 11/1 That Stream..continually undermining and eating away the Root of the Mountain. 1817 Shelley Rev. Isl. vii. xi. 3 A burst of waters driven As from the roots of the sea. 1844 Mrs. Browning Drama of Exile Poems 1850 I. 85 Split the charnel earth To the roots of the grave. 1897 Geikie Anc. Volcanoes Grt. Brit. I. 12 There will thus be a constant pressure of the molten magma into the roots of volcanoes. |
b. The bottom of the groove of a screw thread.
| 1892 Screws & Screw-Making (Britannia Co., Colchester) iii. 39 The diameter at the root of the thread. 1920 F. J. Camm Screw Cutting i. 6 In some instances American screws are measured at the bottom of the thread b; this portion is often called the root. 1964 S. Crawford Basic Engin. Processes (1969) xiv. 299 The root is the bottom portion of the groove between the flanking surfaces of the thread. |
II. 6. a. The source or origin
of some quality, condition, tendency, etc. Also
occas. without
const. Freq. with
fig. context directly referring to sense 1.
| c 1200 Ormin 4976 Forr niss nan mahht tatt bettre maȝȝ Þe winnen eche blisse Þann allre mahhte rote maȝȝ. a 1225 Ancr. R. 54 Biginnunge & rote of þis ilke reouðe was a liht sihð e. a 1300 Cursor M. 28744 Þou pain þe rotes as þou mai O þis man sin to do awai. 1390 Gower Conf. III. 197 Pite, men sein, is thilke roote Wherof the vertus springen alle. 1423 Jas. I Good Counsel 2 Wertew floure and rut is of noblay. 1467–8 Rolls of Parlt. V. 622/2 It was shewed..that Justice was grounde well and rote of all prosperite. 1525 Ld. Berners Froiss. II. clxxviii. [clxxiv.] 535 This rote and foundacion of hatred multyplyed greatly after. 1589 Pasquil's Return C iij b, This is the roote of all the mischife. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. ii. iii. 89 The Root of his Opinion, which is rotten, As euer Oake or Stone was sound. 1639 S. Du Verger tr. Camus' Admir. Events 34 To cut up the roote of all these fooleries in her sonne. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 48 ¶4, I have several Follies which I do not know the Root of. 1720 Ramsay Prosp. Plenty 145 Malicious envy! root of a' debates. 1821–2 Shelley Chas. I, i. i. 103 The root of all this ill is prelacy. 1884 tr. Lotze's Metaph. 513 The root of all these difficulties seems to be a confusion in our idea of..an acting force. |
b. Predicated of persons or material things.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xv. 98 Prestes, and prechoures.., That aren rote of þe riȝte faith. c 1386 Chaucer Can. Yeom. T. 516, I wol it verifie In this Chanoun, roote of alle trecherie. c 1400 Beryn 4015 Saff the Burgeysis of the town, of falshede þat were rote. c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) iii. 1671 O blyssyd womman, rote of ower savacyon. 1549 Latimer 2nd Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 64 These flattering clawbackes are originall rotes of all mischyue. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. vii. 12 All otherwise..I riches read, And deeme them roote of all disquietnesse. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 645 To the Tree Of prohibition, root of all our woe. |
7. a. A source of some quality, etc.;
esp. a virtue or vice giving rise to some condition or action.
| c 1200 Ormin 11658 Alle fule lusstess Biginnenn þære & springenn ut Off gluterrnessess rote. a 1310 in Wright Spec. P. xviii. 57 Suete Jhesu,..In myn huerte thou sete a rote Of thi love. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 173 This [covetousness] is a venymous rote þat makiþ here seruyce..not acceptable to god. c 1400 Apol. Loll. (Camden) 91 Wene we not þe gospel to be..in þe leuis of wordis, but in rot of resoun. 1564 Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 291 Hir Majestie wald nocht that ony rute were left behind, quhilk mycht engender ony new displesour or grudge betuix thame. 1603 H. Crosse Vertues Commw. (1878) 26 Considering those inconueniencies that rise out of the roote of aboundance. 1671 Milton Samson 1032 Or was too much of self⁓love mixt, Of constancy no root infixt. 1781 Cowper Expost. 111 Faith, the root whence only can arise The graces of a life that wins the skies. 1823 Moore Loves Angels, 3rd Angel's Story x, Humility, that low, sweet root From which all heavenly virtues shoot. 1876 Mellor Priesth. ii. 77 The root of bitterness out of which all this strife has grown is simple. |
† b. to take root, to spring
from something.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 43 Vr dedis fro vr hert tas rote, Quedur þai be worthi or bale or bote. |
8. a. A person or family forming the source of a lineage, kindred, or line of descendants.
| 13.. Seuyn Sages 1072 (W.), I ne mai do thi sone no bot, But yif I wite the sothe rot, Of what man hit was biyete. c 1375 Cursor M. 10162 (Trin.), Ioachim bringere of bote, he was comen of dauid rote. 1388 Wyclif Isaiah xi. 1 And a ȝerde schal go out of the roote of Jesse. 1555 Harpesfield in Bonner Hom. 6 For as much as they two were the very route, where of all men must ryse. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 17 Thence flitted thee Latin ofspring, Thee roote of old Alban. 1605 Shakes. Macb. iii. i. 5 It was saide..that my selfe should be the Roote, and Father Of many Kings. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 383 To confound the race Of mankind in one root. 1766 Blackstone Comm. II. 217 This taking by representation is called a succession in stirpes, according to the roots; since all the branches inherit the same share that their root, whom they represent, would have done. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) III. 409 It was introduced with a view to discard the son; and that the father should become the propositus or root, to whom No 10 is exactly in the same relation as No 11 is to the son. 1873 Dixon Two Queens i. i. I. 4 Among the deputies were many who had sprung from Oriental roots. |
| transf. a 1653 Gouge Comm. Heb. vii, Shem was the root of the Church. |
b. A scion, offshoot. (Chiefly Biblical.)
| 13.. Guy Warw. (1883) 442 Þei he be þe deuels rote, Y schal nouȝt fle him a fot. 1382 Wyclif 1 Macc. i. 10 And there wente out of hem a roote of synne, Antiochus the noble. ― Rev. xxii. 16. 1526 Tindale Rev. v. 5 A lion beinge off the tribe off Juda, the rott of David, hath obtayned to open the boke. 1611 Bible Isaiah xi. 10 In that day there shall bee a roote of Iesse, which shall stand for an ensigne of the people. 1632 Lithgow Trav. x. 435 The plants of their Parishes, being the rootes of meere Irish. 1745 W. Robertson in Trans. & Paraph. Scot. Ch. vi. 13 So in this cold and barren World That sacred Root arose. |
9. a. That upon or by which a person or thing is established or supported; the basis upon which anything rests.
In 19th
cent. use common in the
phr. to have (its) root(s in (something).
| 1340 Ayenb. 116 [To] strengþi his roten ine þe erþe of libbende. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xx. 53 Antecryst cam þanne and al þe croppe of treuthe Torned it vp so doune and ouertilte þe rote. 1523 Coverdale Old God & New (1534) D iv, By so moche the more the christen fayth waxed stronge and gathered fast rotes. 1563 Winȝet Wks. (S.T.S.) I. 127 Sen it hes the grund and deip ruitis in the Scriptuir. 1612 Selden Illustr. Drayton's Poly.olb. xvii. (1876) II. 250 Some have referred the utmost root of the Lancastrian title to Edmund,..eldest son to Henry III. 1679 Ness Antichrist 180 Two..is the lowest number (for one is but the root of numbers). 1720 Ozell Vertot's Rom. Rep. II. xi. 179 Cato..fell into Pompey's Hands, who to cut up the Root of the Civil War, put him to Death. 1784 Cowper Task v. 353 Our love is principle, and has its root In reason. 1787 ― Stanzas Bills Mortality 24 A worm is in the bud of youth, And at the root of age. 1820 Shelley Prometh. Unb. ii. iii. 42 The nations echo round, Shaken to their roots, as do the mountains now. 1849–50 Alison Hist. Europe II. vi. §63. 57 This prodigious change..laid the axe to the root of the aristocracy. 1874 Stevenson Ess. Trav. (1905) 245 A high wind under a cloudless sky..seems to have no root in the constitution of things. |
b. Of qualities,
esp. with reference to their hold upon persons.
| 1340 Ayenb. 34 Of þe rote of auarice guoþ out manye smale roten. c 1400 Sc. Trojan War ii. 396 In þe which dame Auaryce Festned hyr rotes at dewyce. 1556 J. Heywood Spider & Fly xxxix. 17 Where honestnes or vertusnes bearth rout. 1570 Dee Math. Pref. *iiij b, What rotes..vertue had fastened in his brest. 1605 Shakes. Macb. iv. iii. 85 This Auarice..growes with more pernicious roote Then Summer-seeming Lust. 1781 Cowper Table Talk 15 With a courage of unshaken root, In honour's field advancing his firm foot. 1841 Trench Parables xii. (1877) 241 Righteousness, both in its root of faith and its flower of charity. |
c. In phrases denoting completeness or thoroughness, as
to the root(s),
by the root(s), etc. (
Cf. 1 b.)
| 1388 Wyclif Ps. li[i]. 7 Therfor God schal distrie thee in to the ende, he schal drawe thee out bi the roote. |
| 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 93 b, Wherby these newe spronge up sectes maye be plucked up by the rotes. 1599 B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. v. v, That so she might, more strictly, and to root, Effect the Reformation she intende. 1611 Shakes. Cymb. i. i. 28 What's his name, and Birth? I cannot delue him to the roote. 1640–1 in Rushw. (1721) iii. I. 187, I wonder not at all..that they would have them [Bishops] up by the Roots. 1781 Cowper Truth 574 Since the dear hour that..cut up all my follies by the root. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) III. 12 This argument was quite cut up by the roots by the determination of the House of Lords in the case of Tong v. Robinson. 1860 Ruskin Unto this last i. §22 He [the merchant] has to understand to their very root the qualities of the things he deals in. 1894 Fenn Real Gold 89 As if he were enjoying himself right down to the roots. |
10. a. The bottom or real basis, the inner or essential part, of anything.
the root of the matter, a literal rendering of
Heb. shōresh dābār in Job xix. 28.
| c 1386 Chaucer Can. Yeom. T. 908 (Ellesm. MS.), Telle me the roote..Of that water, if it be youre wille. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. B. xv. 64 [He] þat þorw resoun wolde þe rote knowe Of god and of his grete myȝtes, his graces it letteth. 1426 Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 10033 Yiff the roote be wel out souht, Strengere than thow, that ys he nouht. 1565 Cooper Thesaurus, Stirps quæstionis, the roote, and foundation of a question. 1611 Bible Job xix. 28 Seeing the root of the matter is found in me. 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 168 That everlastingness which the soul has in the root..is of the same kind. 1735 Col. Rec. Pennsylv. IV. 45 Until he advisedly looketh into the Roots of it and tries it by the Rule of Law. 1850 Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. v. (1872) 61 In every such case it may be taken for granted that the root of the matter has not been reached. 1875 Swinburne Ess. & Stud. 274 His resolute desire to get at the roots of things, and deeper yet if deeper might be. |
† b. The bottom
of the heart, in various figurative uses.
Obs. For earlier examples see
heart-root 1. In latest examples
perh. an alteration of
rote.
| 1485 Caxton Paris & V. (1868) 11 In hym I haue putte the rote of myn entyere herte. 1508 Dunbar Poems, Tua Mariit Wemen 162, I sall a ragment reveil fra the rute of my hert. c 1560 A. Scott Poems (S.T.S.) xv. 1 Vp, helsum hairt! thy rutis rais, and lowp. 1607 Shakes. Cor. ii. i. 202 A Curse begin at very root on's heart. 1607 Chapman Bussy D'Ambois Plays 1873 II. 82 As illiterate men say Latine praiers By roote of heart, and daily iteration. 1684 Bunyan Pilgr. ii. 11 That thou read therein to thy self, and to thy Children, until you have got it by root-of-Heart. |
c. at (the) root, at bottom, essentially.
| 1855 Kingsley Westw. Ho! ii, He was, at root, a godly and kind-hearted pedant enough. 1857 Borrow Rom. Rye xvi, At the root mad. |
11. a. to take (or strike) root, to obtain a permanent footing or hold; to settle down
in a place, etc.
| 1535 Coverdale 2 Kings xix. 30 And the doughter Iuda..shall from hence forth take rote beneth, and beare frute aboue. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 92 b, No suche sectes can take roote or remayne emonges them. 1605 Camden Rem. (1623) 10 This warlike..Nation, after it had as it were taken roote here. 1784 Cowper Task ii. 568 Prejudice in men of stronger minds Takes deeper root, confirm'd by what they see. 1809 Malkin Gil Blas x. xi. ¶5 As soon as I had taken root in my new soil. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge xlviii, The cause has taken a deep root, and has spread its branches far and wide. 1899 Gardiner Cromwell 36 The idea struck root. |
† b. A hold upon a person's affections, confidence, or favour.
Obs.| a 1715 Burnet Own Time (1724) I. 207 Such an attempt..would give him a faster root with the King. 1756 Home Douglas 11, Let not thy jealousy attempt to shake And loosen the good root he has in Randolph. |
c. A strong link or attachment.
| 1854 Kingsley Lett. (1878) I. 432 The awful feeling of having the roots which connect one with the last generation seemingly torn up. |
d. pl. Established ties with a locality or region; one's social, cultural, or ethnic origins or ‘background’. Also in
colloq. phr. to put down roots, to become established in a place, to settle down.
| 1921 R. Macaulay Dangerous Ages iv. 82 The..infinitely loved Barry, who was going to give her roots. 1949 G. B. Shaw Buoyant Billions ii. 21 Plenty of money and no roots. No traditions. 1969 A. G. Thomas in L. Durrell Spirit of Place 117 On three occasions, when he has bought a house and put down roots, the whole collection has been posted out to him. 1977 Gay News 7–20 Apr. 10/4 In Scots and Welsh schools children are taught about their national roots, culture and history. 1977 P. Theroux Consul's File 184 Is it possible to put down roots here?.. The Chinese won't, the Tamils can't, the Malays pretend they have them. |
12. root-and-branch: see
branch n. 6 b.
For
root and crop,
root and rind, in similar uses, see
crop n. 5 and
rind n.1 2.
| 1642 Sir E. Dering Sp. on Relig. 94, I never gave my name in to take away both root and branch. |
b. In adverbial use: Completely, utterly.
| 1640 Sir H. Slingsby Diary (1836) 66 Some do petition to reform them, others to abolish them root and branch. 1650 R. Stapylton Strada's Low C. Wars v. 141 Constantly to endeavour the extirpation of it, Root and Branch. 1777 J. Adams Fam. Lett. (1876) 299 If our people do not turn out now and destroy Burgoyne's gang, root and branch. 1829 Scott Rob Roy Introd., Cutting off the tribe of MacGregor root and branch. 1887 Times (weekly ed.) 23 Sept. 17/3 You may look forward..to local government being dealt with by Parliament root and branch. |
† c. ellipt. The policy of total abolition.
Obs.| 1679 Evelyn Sylva (ed. 3) 2 Professing themselves against Root and Branch. |
d. In attributive use, of persons or things.
| 1737 Gentl. Mag. VII. 499 These are Root and Branch Men, and strike at the Foundation of all our National Happiness. 1788 Ann. Reg., Misc. 143, I have hit upon a plan which will make root and branch work of it, and do the business effectually. 1816 Edin. Rev. XXVII. 167 We have seen that our root-and-branch Reformer went a great deal farther. 1858 J. Payn Foster Brothers xv, The boy had become at heart a root-and-branch democrat. 1887 Dict. Nat. Biog. IX. 249/2 The so-called root-and-branch bill for the total extinction of episcopacy. |
III. † 13. Astrol. = radix 2.
Obs.| c 1386 Chaucer Man of Law's T. 314 Of viage is ther noon eleccioun,..Noght whan a roote is of a burthe yknowe? c 1391 ― Astrol. ii. §54 Consider thy rote furst, the wyche is made the begynning of the tabelis. 1575 F. Wither tr. Indagine's Chiromancy iii. N iv, They which haue Venus in the rote of their natiuity. 1603 [see radix 2]. 1647 Lilly Chr. Astrol. clvii. 654, I oft am enforced to name the Root of the Nativity, it were more proper to say the Radix, for our English doth not well expresse the sense of the words. |
14. Math. a. A number, quantity, or dimension, which, when multiplied by itself a requisite number of times, produces a given expression.
cube (or third) root: see
cube n.1 3.
square root (
† quadrate root) or
second root: see
square a.
| 1557 Recorde Whetstone C iv, Thei onely haue rootes, whiche bee made by many multiplications of some one number by it self. 1571 Digges Pantom. i. xxv. H j b, The roote quadrat of the whole number, is the desired distance or line Hypothenusal. 1660 Barrow Euclid Expl. Signs, The Side or Root of a Square. 1679 Moxon Math. Dict. 38 Cube Root, the Root or Side of the third Power: So if 27 be the Cube, 3 is the Side or Root. 1706 W. Jones Syn. Palmar. Matheseos 47 The Root or First Power being taken as a Side, the Second Power will be a Square. 1753 Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. s.v., The extraction of the roots of algebraic quantities. Ibid., Impossible Root is not only the square root of a negative quantity, but any other root denominated by any even number. 1798 Hutton Course Math. (1799) I. 80 Roots are sometimes denoted by writing the character √ before the power, with the index of the root against it. 1859 B. Smith Arith. & Algebra (ed. 6) 199 The Square Root of any proposed quantity. 1876 Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 1875 ii. 13 (heading) Theorems on the nth roots of unity. 1898 G. Chrystal Introd. Algebra (1902) 5 Special cases are the second root written √a ; the third root or cube root [etc.]. 1941 Courant & Robbins What is Math.? ii. 100 The complex cube roots of 1..are the roots of the equation x2 + x + 1 = 0. 1966 Math. Rev. XXXI. 29/1 If α is an algebraic integer, α ≠ 0, α not a root of unity, then at least one of the conjugates of α has absolute value greater than 1. |
b. The value or values of an unknown quantity which will satisfy a given equation.
| 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v. If the Value of x be Negative, e.gr. x = -5, the Root is said to be false. 1798 Hutton Course Math. (1799) I. 249 To find the root of the cubic equation x3 + x2 + x = 100, or the value of x in it. 1826 in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) I. 544/2 Both members of an equation may be raised to the same power, or the same root of them may be extracted. 1885 Watson & Burbury Math. Th. Electr. & Magn. 179 The three roots are always real. The equation is the same as that [etc.]. |
c. A unique node or vertex of a graph from which every other node can be reached. Also
root node.
| 1857 A. Cayley in Phil. Mag. XIII. 172 The inspection of these figures will show at once what is meant by the term in question, and by the terms root, branches,..and knots (which may be either the root itself, or proper knots, or the extremities of the free branches). 1881 Amer. Jrnl. Math. IV 266 In a tree of N knots, selecting any knot at pleasure as a root, the tree may be regarded as springing from this root, and it is then called a root-tree. 1965 Proc. Cambr. Philos. Soc. LXI. 499 A tree is a connected topological graph without circuits. The vertices will also be called nodes or individuals. There is often one distinguished node called..the root. 1973 C. W. Gear Introd. Computer Sci. vii. 282 Formally, a tree is a set of nodes connected by branches such that there is one and only one way of going from one node to another via branch connections, and which has a distinguished node called the root node. 1973 S. Even Algorithmic Combinatorics vi. 109 A vertex v is called a root..of the graph if every vertex of the graph is reachable from v. 1976 E. Minieka tr. Berge's Graphs & Hypergraphs (ed. 2) iii. 32 A graph does not always have a root. 1977 Sci. Amer. Apr. 70/1 The location of the first key to be examined in a binary tree is traditionally known as the root; in the 31-word example the root is 16. |
d. digital root: the digit obtained when all the digits of a number are added and the process is repeated on successive results until the outcome is a single digit.
| 1956 G. A. Montgomerie Digital Calculating Machines vii. 140 One such check number is the ‘digital root’ obtained by adding all the digits of the number. 1973 Sci. Amer. Dec. 120/1 One way to do it makes use of the old accountant's trick for checking addition by digital roots. |
15. Philol. a. One of those ultimate elements of a language, that cannot be further analysed, and form the base of its vocabulary;
† a primary word or form from which others are derived.
| 1530 Palsgr. Introd. 31 His thre chefe rotes, that is to say, his theme, his preterit participle, and his present infynityve. 1599 Broughton's Lett. xii. 39 Recourse must be had to the Hebrew, euen to a false roote. 1615 Bedwell Index Ass. O iij, The theame or roote, as they call it, from whence it is deriued, is..Kara', to reade. 1631 Gouge God's Arrows i. §11. 15 The word..is derived from the same roote. 1740 Chesterfield Lett. lxiii. (1792) I. 177 The shortest and best way of learning a language is to know the roots of it; that is those original primitive words, of which many other words are made. 1760 Sterne Tr. Shandy iv. xxix, As it is a fault only in the declension, and the roots of the words continue untouch'd. 1837 G. Phillips Syriac Gram. 20 The simplest forms of nouns are those which consist only of the letters composing the root. 1856 Stanley Sinai & Pal. (1858) 260 Sharon, a name of the same root as that used to designate the table-lands beyond the Jordan. 1883 Morfill Slavonic Lit. ii. 39 A Slavonic root, meaning dwelling. |
b. With punning allusion to sense 1.
| 1663 Butler Hud. i. i. 59 Hebrew Roots, although th' are found To flourish most in barren ground, He had such plenty. 1812 Combe Syntax, Picturesque xxiii. 20 What though by toil and pain, I know Where ev'ry Hebrew root doth grow. 1831 Carlyle Misc. (1857) II. 328 No Greek Roots grew there. |
16. Mus. (See
quot. 1889.)
| 1811 Busby Dict. Mus. (ed. 3), Root, a term applied by theorists to the fundamental note of any chord. 1818 ― Gram. Mus. 314 The Triad may have its mediant either two whole tones, or a tone and a semitone, above its Root. 1867 MacFarren Harmony (1892) 51 The inversion of a chord is the placing one of its other notes, instead of the root, in the bass. 1889 Prout Harmony iii. §58 Much trouble is sometimes caused to students from the word Root being used in two senses by theorists—as the lowest note of any combination of thirds, and also as the fundamental tone in the key from which the combination is harmonically derived. |
17. Miscellaneous senses of uncertain affinity.
Cf. root v.
1 9.
a. slang. (
orig. Schoolboys'). A forceful kick. Also
root about (see
quot. 1900).
| 1900 Farmer Public School Word-Bk. 169 Root-about..(The Leys), promiscuous football practice. 1934 N. Scanlan Winds of Heaven 46 Matt gave him ‘a root in the gear’ and told him not to talk like a stable boy. 1961 in Webster, Caught him a great root with his boot on the backside. |
b. Austral. coarse slang. An act of sexual intercourse. Also, a (female) sexual partner.
| 1959 in R. Chamberlain Stuart Affair (1973) xi. 111 Did you have a root? 1961 F. Hardy Hard Way iii. 77 The conversation led inevitably to women. Our shabby criminal struck a match revealing..a sign scrawled on the wall: ‘Best American root—ring such and such a number.’ 1969 Private Eye 4 July 14/3, I hear tell these artists in London don't exactly have to chase the odd root. 1973 A. Buzo Rooted i. 43 Hey, do you remember the time he got pissed out of his mind and fronted up to this old duck and asked her for a root? 1974 P. Kenna Hard God i. 33 Have you ever gone all the way with a girl?.. You know what I mean. Have you ever had a real root? 1976 D. Ireland Glass Canoe 147 Johnny Bickel..thought she'd be an easy root and began to take notice of her. |
IV. attrib. and
Comb. 18. a. Attrib. in sense 1, with words denoting some part, appendage, or feature belonging to a root, as
root-bark,
root-bud,
root-cap,
root-fibre,
root-system,
root-thread,
root-tip,
root-zone, etc.
| 1832 Planting 7 in Husb. III. (L.U.K.), Should the soil be dry.., the bark in question is gradually converted into *root-bark. |
| 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 603 They are enabled to propagate their subterraneous wires or *root-buds. 1977 J. L. Harper Population Biol. of Plants 290 Both sexes spread clonally by means of root buds. |
| 1875 Huxley & Martin Elem. Biol. 71 Its lower end is covered by the *root-cap of the ultimate termination of the principal root. |
| 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 779 It is quite necessary that the sets have formed *root-fibres at the bottoms before they are removed. |
| 1874 Cooke Fungi 9 A stray fragment of a *root-fibril. |
| 1875 Huxley & Martin Elem. Biol. vi. 41 Appendages, consisting of leaves, branches, *root-filaments, and reproductive organs. |
| 1882 Garden 25 Feb. 133/1 *Root fungus frequently attacks the Rose. |
| 1868 Rep. U.S. Commiss. Agric. (1869) 249 The large amount of *root-growth in the deeper, central parts of the ridge. |
| 1857 A. Gray First Less. Bot. (1866) 31 The absorbing surface of roots is very much greater than it appears to be, on account of the *root-hairs. |
| 1849 Balfour Man. Bot. §963 They [broomrapes] attach themselves to the roots of various plants, and are hence called *Root-parasites. |
| 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 550 Different new lateral stems or *root-scions are sent off. |
| 1848 Lindley Introd. Bot. (ed. 4) ii. 183 *Root secretions are now regarded as unimportant. |
| 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 620 The branching out of the stringy *root-shoots or wires. |
| 1742 Lond. & Country Brewer iv. (ed. 2) 258 The *Root-spire..will be so many Tails to increase the Measure. |
| 1804 J. Grahame Sabbath (1827) 82 When the wren..from the *root-sprig trills her ditty clear. |
| 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 751 The earth being well laid upon the hills round the *root-stems of the plants. |
| 1875 Bennett & Dyer tr. Sachs' Bot. 608 The cut surface of the *root-stump remains at first quite dry. |
| 1786 Abercrombie Gard. Assist. 17 To clear away all *root-suckers. |
| 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXV. 439/1 The presence of a feeble absorptive *root-system and an extended surface of the shoot for transpiration and transudation are the outstanding points [of hydrophytes]. 1969 P. Thrower Every Day Gardening iv. 85/2 Budding is really a form of grafting and enables the grower to unite a garden rose with a root system or ‘stock’ obtained from a wild or vigorous rose. |
| 1954 J. R. R. Tolkien Fellowship of Ring i. vii. 141 His grey thirsty spirit drew power out of the earth and spread like fine *root-threads in the ground. 1954 ― Two Towers 66 Something between *root-tip and leaf-tip. 1967 L. Picken Organization of Cells iv. 127 In the presence of low concentrations of phenolic compounds growing root tips also showed a temporarily increased frequency of fragmentation [of chromosomes]. |
| 1953 J. Ramsbottom Mushrooms & Toadstools xviii. 206 The microflora is greater in the region of actively growing roots than in the soil generally: this is perhaps particularly true of bacteria, but also holds for fungi. This *root-zone of increased population is known as a rhizosphere. |
| 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 625 The continued propagation of potatoes by subterraneous buds, or *root-wires. |
b. In the sense ‘made of roots’.
| 1853 Lowell Moosehead Jrnl. Prose Wks. 1890 I. 9 Sometimes a root-fence stretched up its bleaching antlers. 1864 Atkinson Stanton Grange 7 On the garden side, a root-bench was constructed against the bole of the tree. 1895 Outing XXVI. 389/2 The grass needs time to weave the deep, tough, root carpet so essential for sure footing. 1930 Blunden Poems 318 Thus the sacred well Is passed, and now the far root-canopy Issues its people, swift and slippery. |
c. Misc., as
root-room,
root-sort;
root-beset,
root-built,
root-inwoven;
root-bitten,
root-eaten,
root-filled,
root-fringed,
root-pale,
root-stricken,
root-torn,
root-weary;
root-devouring,
root-digging,
root-eating,
root-feeding,
root-forming;
root-like.
| 1897 M. Kingsley W. Africa 554 A narrow, slippery, muddy, *root-beset bush-path. |
| 1872 Tennyson Gareth & Lynette 445 Wan-sallow as the plant that feels itself *Root-bitten by white lichen. |
| a 1763 Shenstone Economy i. 167 Suffice the *root-built-cell, the simple fleece,..the crystal stream. |
| 1817 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xvi. II. 5 The males of another *root-devouring beetle. |
| 1877 tr. Tiele's Hist. Relig. 17 Lowest in the scale stands the religion of the *root-digging Australians. |
| 1915 Proc. Soc. Antiquaries London XXVII. 149, I have often picked up on the surface of the camp pieces of old *root-eaten human bones. |
| 1882 Garden Mar. 147/2 The Cabbage fly is much of the same size as the *root-eating fly. |
| 1892 Lubbock Beaut. Nat. 67 Others collect *root-feeding Aphides into their nests. |
| 1918 Atlantic Monthly CXXII. 122 The Place d'Etoile was perhaps first adumbrated by wild boars concentrating on a *root-filled marsh. |
| 1946 Nature 19 Oct. 555/1 The *root-forming capacity of penicillins G and X almost certainly resided in these substances themselves. |
| 1944 Blunden Shells by Stream 5 Upon the *root-fringed dais. |
| 1792 S. Rogers Pleas. Mem. i. 79 Yon *root-inwoven seat. |
| 1832 Lindley Introd. Bot. iii. v. 351 Generally the root or *root-like bodies are to be excluded from all characters higher than those of species. |
| 1960 S. Plath Colossus 63 *Root-pale her meagre frame. |
| c 1887 G. M. Hopkins Poems (1967) 103, I do advise You, jaded, let be; call off thoughts awhile Elsewhere; leave comfort *root-room. 1977 Interim IV. iv. 4 Strips of unripened green, retarded from maturity by the moisture and greater root-room in the ditch's silts below. |
| 1960 T. Hughes Lupercal 33 Worm-sort, *root-sort, going where it is profitable. |
| 1860 C. Rossetti Poems (1904) 191/1 Thou, *root-striken, shalt not rebuild thy decay On my bosom for aye. |
| 1871 R. Ellis Catullus lxiv. 288 Tall *root-torn beeches. |
| 1931 A. Huxley Cicadas 51 Never a tortured flower Shudders, *root-weary, on the verge of flight. |
19. In sense 3, as
root-boat,
root-cellar,
root-crop,
root-culture,
root-cutting board,
root-field,
root vegetable, etc.; also
root-eater,
root-gatherer,
root-pedlar,
root-puller,
root-pulper,
root-woman;
root-loving,
root-pulping adjs. For names and descriptions of various implements or machines, as
root-bruiser,
-cutter,
-digger, etc., see Knight
Dict. Mech. (1875) and
Suppl. (1884).
| 1636 Maldon Borough Deeds (Bundle 110, fol. 2), March 12. Re[ceived] for the groundage of a *Root boate at barrow hills, 4d. |
| 1822 Loudon Encycl. Gard. 378 The *root-cellar may have a few divisions on the ground to keep the different roots apart. 1872 Root-cellar [see grain-box s.v. grain n.1 18 a]. 1965 E. L. Myles Emperor of Peace River ii. ii. 184 After that we collected the potatoes and put them in the root cellar. |
| 1834 Husb. I. 382 (L.U.K.), Regarding *root crops, Mr. Cuthbert Johnson also mentions [etc.]. 1847 W. C. L. Martin Ox 115/1 Of all these root-crops, it appears that the least exhausting to the land is that of the beet. 1901 L. H. Bailey Princ. Vegetable-Gardening ix. 271 Root crops require a cool season and a deep soil. 1969 Oxf. Bk. Food Plants 172 (heading) Crucifer and composite root crops. |
| 1840 J. Buel Farmer's Comp. 163 The advantages of *root culture to the soil. |
| 1969 E. H. Pinto Treen 95 The introduction and gradual increase throughout the 18th century, in the growing of root crops for animal winter feed, led to the importance of the well worn *root cutting board. |
| a 1735 Arbuthnot Misc. Wks. (1751) I. 212 Any Daughter of a Waterdrinker and *Root-eater. |
| 1932 Blunden Fall in, Ghosts 9 The crucifix surmounting the steps of granite in the middle of the *rootfields. 1977 F. Parrish Fire in Barley ii. 18 Dan heard the bloodhounds..race across the root field towards the farm. |
| 1562 Turner Herbal ii. 56 b, Theyr *root gatherers digged not theyr rootes hole out of grounde. |
| 1947 C. S. Lewis in Punch 1 Oct. 324/1 Fruit-loving, *root-loving gods. |
| 1562 Turner Herbal ii. 56 b, Y⊇ Duche *root pedlers of Antwerp. |
| 1699 Evelyn Acetaria App. P 5 b, So have you a Composition for any *Root-Pudding. |
| 1856 Trans. Mich. Agric. Soc. VII. 54 D. O. & W. S. Penfield, Detroit, one iron *root puller. 1952 S. Selvon Brighter Sun ix. 161 With a root-puller attached the tractor would move up to a tree and the arms would reach down into the earth and wrest the tree out. |
| 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 730/1 *Root pulper, a machine comprising a rotating steel disc furnished with cutters, to which roots that have been cleared of soil are fed. 1978 Morecambe Guardian 14 Mar. 22/3 (Advt.), Bale Sledge, Buck Rake, Root Pulper. |
| 1910 Chambers's Jrnl. Mar. 207/2 The electricity furnished by this means serves to light the house.., and drives a chaff-cutter, a circular saw, and a *root-pulping machine. |
| 1820 W. Tooke Lucian I. 306 You are nothing but a *rootscraper and a mountebank. |
| 1851 Mayhew London Lab. I. 130/1 The ‘*root-sellers’ (as the dealers in flowers in pots are mostly called). |
| 1802 Willich Dom. Encycl. III. 503/2 *Root-Steamer, an useful machine..for steaming potatoes, carrots, and other roots, with the view of feeding cattle. |
| 1886 C. Scott Sheep-Farming 80 A *root store, a small hay shed,..and a comfortable hut for the shepherd, are all requisites of the lambing fold. |
| Ibid. 66 Corn boxes do not need to be so large as the *root troughs. |
| 1898 Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 895 Raw fruits, *root vegetables, and bread must be avoided. 1957 P. Worsley Trumpet shall Sound 15 The people live by cultivating..root-vegetables. 1976 Southern Even. Echo (Southampton) 1 Nov. 4/3 The sandy soil there, he reckons, suits root vegetables just fine. |
| 1801 Spirit Public Jrnls. V. 304 Nor will he despise the filth and rubbish of a *root-woman's cellar. |
20. In sense 4, as
root-drawer,
root-forceps;
root-affection,
root-centre,
root-sheath,
root-treatment;
root-filling,
root-planing,
root-rising;
root-filled adj.| 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 894 As a rule the root-affection is most severe. |
| 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 46 The painful impressions upon the root centres. |
| 1597 A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. b 4 b, The Roote-drawer, to drawe any roote of a toothe. |
| 1963 C. R. Cowell et al. Inlays, Crowns, & Bridges viii. 84 A post-retained crown is commonly indicated for a root-filled anterior tooth the natural crown of which has become discoloured. 1977 Proc. R. Soc. Med. LXX. 439/1 Teeth root-filled or crowned before operation were excluded from these results. |
| 1963 C. R. Cowell et al. Inlays, Crowns, & Bridges viii. 85 The root filling should be well condensed. 1969 Gloss. Terms Dentistry (B.S.I.) 23 Root filling, the permanent filling and sealing of the root canal of a tooth to avoid the accumulation within the root canal of fluids or micro-organisms. |
| 1875 Dental Cosmos XVII. 509 The forcing of delicate beaks of a fine pair of root-forceps up between the root and the bone. |
| 1962 Blake & Trott Periodontology x. 105 For pockets under 3mm, only removal of calculus and root planing and polishing are necessary. |
| 1922 D. H. Lawrence in Poetry XXI. 65 Until your veiled head almost touches backward To the root-rising of your erected tail. |
| 1859 Todd's Cycl. Anat. V. 497 The..inner rootsheath lies in immediate contact with the outer rootsheath. 1872 Huxley Physiol. xii. 278 The superficial epidermic cells of the hair sac..become converted into root sheaths. |
| 1927 W. E. Collinson Contemp. Eng. 60 If a tooth is decaying or hollow we have it stopped or filled..or we have root-treatment (sterilization and withdrawal of nerve). |
21. In sense 9 or 10, as
root-cause,
root-conception,
root-confusion,
root-divergence,
root-evil,
root-fallacy,
root-idea, etc. (Now passing into
adj.)
| 1915 E. Carpenter Healing of Nations i. 12 One might be on safer ground by trying to get at the *root-causes of this war. 1977 J. Wainwright Day of Peppercorn Kill 191 He didn't trust us, Dick—that's the root cause. |
| 1862 R. Vaughan Eng. Nonconf. 194 These were the *root conceptions of their faith. 1934 Downside Rev. LII. 223 As to the second root-conception of Cistercianism, the mere enunciation of an opinion..cannot be allowed. |
| 1940 W. Empson Gathering Storm 25 The mind..now less easily decides On a good *root-confusion to amass Much safety from irrelevant despair. |
| 1927 Auden & Day-Lewis Oxf. Poetry p. vi, The logical conflict, between the denotatory and connotatory sense of words, which is the *root-divergence of classic and romantic. |
| 1891 Hibbert Eng. Gilds 143 That *root-evil of our present industrial system, irregularity of employment. |
| 1872 Morley Voltaire 236 Without seeking to expose the *root fallacy of idea. |
| 1847 Proc. Philol. Soc. III. 34 The writer is convinced that the *root-ideas..are few in number. 1866 Duke of Argyll Reign of Law ii. 70 Force is the root-idea of Law in its scientific sense. 1933 E. Partridge Words, Words, Words! i. 88 The root-idea of blood as something vivid or distressing or both still colours the use of the adjective. |
| 1923 D. H. Lawrence Kangaroo vii. 141 Hardly sympathy at all, but an ancient sort of *root-knowledge. |
| 1960 Spectator 7 Oct. 518/2 Mr. Kimche is arguing against the consistent record, and against the very *root-logic of Zionism. |
| 1681 J. Flavel Method of Grace xi. 233 Christ..the comprehensive *root-mercy, from whom are all other mercies. |
| 1875 E. White Life in Christ ii. xiv. (1878) 155 S. Paul and the other apostles treat this as a *root-principle of the gospel theology. |
| 1933 H. Read Art Now i. 47 This brings us down to the *root-problem of aesthetics. 1957 M. Swan Brit. Guiana iv. 68 It is one of the root problems of the country. |
| 1853 Kingsley Hypatia viii, He found himself face to face with the *root-questions of all thought. |
| 1924 R. Hichens After Verdict iii. xiv. 491, I hated her Then because I loved you. That was the *root reason. |
| a 1957 R. Campbell tr. A. de Campos in Coll. Poems (1960) III. 138 Which, once constructed, announce themselves As Real-Things, Spirit-Things, or Entities of the Stone-Soul, Made ours at certain moments by *root-sensations. |
| 1976 S. Hynes Auden Generation ii. 56 As the decade moved on, these images took on heavier symbolic meanings..but the *root-sense of the images remained the same. |
| 1884 J. Parker Apost. Life II. 213 You must find in yourselves the *root-thought of God. |
| 1667 J. Flavel Saint Indeed Ep. Ded., There are multitudes of books indeed, and of them many concern not themselves about *Root-truths. |
| 1898 G. Meredith Odes Fr. Hist. 61 Strength is of the plain *root-virtue born. |
| 1855 Kingsley Glaucus 32 The great *root-wonder of a number of distinct individuals connected by a common life. |
22. a. In sense 14, as
root-factor,
root-limitation,
root-point.
| 1857 Trans. Cambr. Phil. Soc. (1864) X. i. 263 We then, in the common way, establish the existence of the root-factor. Ibid. 266 The curves P = 0, Q = 0, the intersection of which determines the root-points. 1874 Ibid. (1879) XII. ii. 395 On the geometrical representation of Cauchy's theorems of Root-limitation. |
b. In sense 15, as
root-accent,
root-character,
root-class,
root determinative,
root-element,
root-enlargement,
root-expansion,
root form,
root-language,
root-morpheme,
root-noun,
root-period,
root-play,
root-stem,
root stress,
root-syllable,
root-vowel,
root-word;
root-accented,
root-final,
root-initial,
root-forming,
root stressed adjs.| 1935 G. K. Zipf Psycho-Biol. of Lang. 133 The explanation offered by Jespersen for extensive root-accent. 1975 Language LI. 140 The more commonly occurring root-accented forms tr{amacacu}mane, d{amacacu}mane, dhármane, bhármane. |
| 1871 Public Sch. Lat. Gram. §14. 21 The last letter of a Root, as g in flag-, is the Root-character. |
| 1879 W. D. Whitney Sanskrit Gram. ix. 208 The root-class [of verbs]..its present-stem is coincident with the root itself. 1965 G. Y. Shevelov Prehist. of Slavic xxiv. 367 It is to be assumed that in these words the varying consonants had not been originally a part of the root but were the so-called root determinatives, a kind of suffixes whose function is no longer discoverable. |
| 1935 G. K. Zipf Psycho-Biol. of Lang. 145 When the accent..was not on the endings, it was always on the stem-formative (suffix or infix) and not on the root-element. 1976 Archivum Linguisticum VII. 63 The discrepancy between the consonants..is easily accounted for by the assumption of different root-enlargements. |
| 1895 P. Giles Short Man. Compar. Philol. xxv. 370 The details of the theory of root-expansion are..as yet too little worked out. 1965 H. M. Hoenigswald in W. Winter Evidence for Laryngeals 93 Such extra-Indoiranian etymologies as have been advanced with any promise mostly involve root-final position for the voiceless aspirates. 1973 Trans. Philol. Soc. 1971 68 sil- is not a permissible Indo-European root form. |
| 1933 L. Bloomfield Language 275 Even our root-forming morphemes..have some flexibility. 1956 Language XXXII. 453 The root-initial verb aspect markers are most aptly described in terms of simulfixation. 1972 Ibid. XLVIII. 477 The alternations in the non-nasal prefixes are conditioned by the voicing of the root-initial consonant. |
| 1885 Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 774/1 A Chinese monosyllable or an Egyptian or Polynesian dissyllable is radical, unless there can be demonstrated in some part of it a formative value; and a language wholly composed of such words is a root-language. 1935 G. K. Zipf Psycho-Biol. of Lang. 177 The total magnitude of complexity of the root-morpheme fac, a typical example, was diminished. 1950 Lingua II. 241 He makes only a few isolated remarks about the morphemes that occur most frequently, i.e. the root-morphemes. 1972 Language XLVIII. 477 Such a proto-initial is very poorly attested by the comparative data in root-morphemes. |
| 1879 W. D. Whitney Sanskrit Gram. xiii. 314 The root-noun used as infinitive has the same form, and the same accent,..as in its other uses. 1962 C. Watkins Indo-European Origins of Celtic Verb I. 185 The verbal root *med- being identical with the athematic root noun *med-. |
| 1874 Sayce Compar. Philol. vi. 227 The root-period is not inconsistent with a rudimentary inflection. |
| 1970 M. Dahood Psalms III. 109 The rootplay evident in yilb⊇šu and boštām..is of a piece with the wordplays that wryly characterize many biblical and Canaanite laments. |
| 1879 W. D. Whitney Sanskrit Gram. v. 129 Root-stems, having in them no demonstrable element added to a root. 1979 T. Burrow Problem of Schwa in Sanskrit 66 The root stem n{amacacu}s- f. ‘nostril, nose’ inflects with long vowel in the only strong case which occurs in the Veda. |
| 1965 G. Y. Shevelov Prehist. of Slavic iv. 68 In all these cases the Li[thuanian] F[alling] P[itch] type has root stress. Ibid. 69 Analogy with the root stressed instr[umental] and loc[ative] pl[ural]. |
| 1845 Proc. Philol. Soc. II. 50 Those syllables which are dignified by the name of root syllables. 1900 H. Sweet Hist. Lang. vi. 103 The place of the accent [in Aryan] was not restricted by any considerations of quantity or distance from the end of the word,..nor was it restricted to the root-syllable of a word, as was afterwards the tendency in the Germanic language. 1972 Language XLVIII. 477 Arranging the words in the alphabetical order of their root-syllables. |
| 1852 Proc. Philol. Soc. V. 201 The root-vowel a of the Latin fra-ter. |
| 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. xxxiv. 6 All agree not in the woord..which some supposing too bee derived of the roote⁓woord. 1587 ― De Mornay xxviii. 444 Now the word Silo (saith Kimhi in his booke of Rootewordes) signifieth the Sonne of him. 1865 Tylor Early Hist. Man. iv. 61 Two divisions of the root-words of our Aryan language. 1918 R. Bridges in G. M. Hopkins Poems 100 Passages where, in a jungle of root-words, emphasis seems to oust euphony. 1954 H. Read Anarchy & Order 196 The root-word vir [in virtue] has the implication of masculinity. |
c. In sense 16, as
root-note,
root-position,
root-progression.
| 1883 Grove's Dict. Music III. 158/1 The group of harmonics generated by their fundamental or root note. 1891 Prout Counterpoint (ed. 2) 192 This will give us a most unpleasant mediant chord in root position in the fourth bar. 1901 ― Harmony v, We have several times made the bass fall a fifth, to impress upon the student the identity of the root-progression. |
23. Special combs., as
root-alcohol (see
quot.);
root-aorist Philol., in certain Indo-European languages, an aorist formed by adding personal endings directly to the root-syllable of the verb;
root-ball, (
a)
= nigger-head 1 a; (
b) the mass formed by the roots of a plant and the soil between and around them; hence
root-balled a.;
root beer,
U.S., a beverage prepared from roots;
root-beetle, a beetle infesting the roots of trees;
root-bound a.,
† (
a) bound or held by roots; (
b)
= pot-bound a.; also
fig.;
† root bread U.S., the bulbs of
Camassia quamash (
cf. camas,
quamash), formerly baked and eaten in western North America;
root canal, the pulp-filled cavity within the root of a tooth;
root-climber, a plant which climbs by the aid of rootlets developed on the stem;
root coal (?);
† root colour, a dye-colour produced by certain roots; hence
† root-coloured adj.;
root cutter, (
a) an implement for cutting edible roots; (
b) one for cutting tree roots underground;
root cutting, a cutting taken from the root of a plant;
root-devourer, a beetle living upon roots (see
quot.);
root digger, (
a) a primitive implement for digging up edible roots; (
b) a member of a North American indian people (
cf. digger 2 c);
root doctor U.S. dial., one who treats ailments by means of roots, a herb-doctor; also
= root worker below;
root-footed a., rhizopodous;
root-form, (
a) a basal or primitive form (of something); (
b) an insect form which infests the roots;
root gall (see
quot. 1902);
root-graft n., (
a) a graft of a scion on to a root; (
b) a naturally occurring graft between the roots of neighbouring trees; hence
root-graft v. trans., to graft by means of a root-graft;
root-grafted ppl. a.,
root-grafting vbl. n.;
root-hold, attachment by means of roots (
freq. fig.);
root-knot, a disease of many crop and other plants, caused by infestation of the roots with the nematode
Heterodera marioni producing characteristic swellings or nodules;
freq. attrib.;
root-mean-square Physics, a mean calculated as the square root of the arithmetic mean of the squares of a set of values;
freq. attrib.;
root nodule, a swelling on a root of a legume or other higher plant containing symbiotic micro-organisms which fix nitrogen;
root pressure Bot. [
tr. G.
wurzelkraft (J. von Sachs
Handb. der Exper.-Physiol. der Pflanzen (1865) IV. vii. 199)], the hydrostatic pressure generated in the roots of a plant, which helps the sap to rise in the xylem;
root-prune v., to prune (a tree) by cutting its roots; so
root-pruning;
root rot, a disease of plants, attacking the roots;
root-run, the space over which the roots of a plant extend;
roots reggae, a style of reggae music considered as an expression of the black Jamaicans' cultural identity;
root-stroke, a decisive stroke, a fatal blow;
root swell(ing), an outgrowth of a tree above a root, forming a natural buttress;
† root tubercle = root nodule above;
root worker U.S. dial., one who uses roots to work spells, a conjurer (
cf. sense 3 c above); so
root work;
root-worm, a worm attacking the roots of plants.
| 1883 R. Haldane Workshop Rec. Ser. ii. 11/2 *Root-alcohol.—A number of roots and tubers..have been availed of for the manufacture of alcohol. |
| 1879 W. D. Whitney Sanskrit Gram. xi. 276 Imperative forms of the *root-aorist are not rare in the early language. 1955 H. G. Lunt Old Church Slavonic Gram. iv. 89 The most wide-spread type of the older aorists was the so-called ‘root-aorist’, attested by over 650 examples with some 27 verbs. 1976 Archivum Linguisticum VII. 62 In Oscan-Umbrian -e- is the sign of a secondary thematization of the Indo-European root-aorist. |
| 1930 Sat. Even. Post 13 Dec. 11/2 Bogs of black muck dotted with devilish, rotating *root-balls that throw a man waist-deep. 1956 X. Field Housewife Bk. House Plants i. 31 If the outside of the root ball is a network of roots re⁓potting is called for. 1973 J. L. Faust Bk. House Plants 37 If the root ball of the plant is very tightly packed and hard, it can be squeezed a bit to break it apart. |
| 1966 Gloss. Landscape Work (B.S.I.) iv. 19 *Root-balled, with roots contained within a well-defined mass of soil (in practice usually wrapped with protective material). |
| 1843 Knickerbocker XXII. 85 Let..the temperance halls and the *root-beer perambulatories make answer. 1851 Hawthorne Ho. Seven Gables iii, No less than five persons..enquired for ginger-beer or root-beer or any drink of a similar brewage. 1856 Kane Arctic Expl. I. xxix. 387, I will stay only long enough to complete my latest root-beer brewage. 1921 [see Coca-Cola]. 1974 E. Brawley Rap ii. xix. 250 Sucking on his root beer freeze through a red plastic straw. |
| 1817 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxiii. II. 372 In the morning..the Hopliæ, *root-beetles before mentioned, have their dances in the air. |
| 1634 Milton Comus 662 As Daphne was *Root-bound, that fled Apollo. 1885 R. T. Cooke Root-Bound 11 My plants do blossom well..and I don't know why unless it is because they are root-bound. Ibid. 12 It's good for folks and flowers too to be root-bound..sometimes; especially, if we want to bring forth good fruit. 1946 Nature 23 Nov. 762/2 Further experiments show the importance of..the feeding of root-bound plants with a balanced fertilizer prior to transplanting. 1976 S. Wales Echo 27 Nov. 4/1 He informed the schoolmaster that finding a square root meant looking for limp leaves in seedlings or pot plants, this condition being caused by them being root-bound in box or pot. |
| 1805 W. Clark in Orig. Jrnls. Lewis & Clark Expedition (1905) III. 85 Traded for some *root Bread & skins to make shirts. 1806 J. Ordway in Lewis & Ordway Jrnls. Western Explor. (1916) 352 We bought a little dark couloured root bread which is not good but will Support nature. c 1840 D. Thompson Narr. Explorations W. Amer. 1784–1812 (1916) ii. iv. 413 An old Man made a short speech, and made a present of two cakes of root bread (not moss). |
| 1893 Dental Rec. XIII. 523 (heading) Filling *root canals with coal wadding. 1923 Ibid. XLIII. 269 The root-canals afford excellent hold for posts. Ibid. 682 The first requisite for root-canal filling is the complete sterilisation of the root-canal and tubuli. 1978 S. Sheldon Bloodline xli. 356 A dental bill for root-canal work for Charles Martel. |
| 1897 J. C. Willis Flowering Pl. & Ferns I. 177 *Root-climber. |
| 1813 Vancouver Agric. Devon 71 The *root coal has a broken and wavy texture. |
| 1777 Dict. Chem. I. U 8 note, The stuffs intended to receive a *root color. |
| Ibid., The nuts and roots employed in the *root-colored dye. |
| 1807 T. Young Lect. Nat. Phil. II. 208/2 Scythes, chaff cutter, *root cutter. a 1877 Knight Dict. Mech. II. 1975/2 To bring the roots to a convenient size for the stock and to remove the danger of choking, root-cutters were introduced. 1943 J. Stuart Taps for Private Tussie xxii. 226 You could follow the mule behind a locust-beamed plow with a sharp root cutter in it and hear the roots pop. 1969 E. H. Pinto Treen 18 Root Cutters. The traditional type illustrated..with pivoted knife at one end, was made in a considerable range of hardwoods.., and was used generally..by apothecaries. |
| 1954 A. G. L. Hellyer Encycl. Garden Work 68/2 As a rule *root cuttings are taken while the plant is dormant, which means generally, in winter. 1969 P. Thrower Every Day Gardening v. 108/1 Propagation by root cuttings is the best way of increasing many thick-rooted perennials like verbascums, Oriental poppies, phlox, anchusa and Limonium latifolium. |
| 1817 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxiii. II. 349 The *root-devourers or tree-chafers (Melolontha, Hoplia, &c.) support themselves..in the air and over the trees. |
| 1831 W. Gordon Let. 3 Oct. in A. H. Abel Chardon's Jrnl. at Fort Clark (1932) 346 Many of these [Snake Indians] go by the name which signifies *Root digger, because they live by digging roots. 1837 W. Irving Capt. Bonneville II. xii. 204 These are of that branch of the great Snake tribe called Shoshokoes, or Root Diggers, from their subsisting, in a great measure, on the roots of the earth. 1865 Lubbock Preh. Times 420 Root-diggers are either made of horns, or of crooked sticks pointed and hardened by fire. 1866 Proc. Philad. Acad. 225 The Shoshoni, or Root-Digger skulls, three in number, vary in form. 1947 B. A. De Voto Across Wide Missouri 432 ‘Root-digger’..describes all the tribes, most of them superior tribes, that lived in localities where there were staple crops of edible roots and bulbs. |
| 1821 J. Howison Sk. Upper Canada xii. 195 ‘Oh!’ said the woman, ‘if I had but the *root doctor that used to attend our family at Connecticut; he was a dreadful skeelful man.’ 1890 N.Y. Age 19 Apr. 1/1 Carmier was what people call down here a root doctor... He only rode around the county..and made his living curing the sick and selling his medicine. 1900 Jrnl. Amer. Folklore XIII. 228 People git conjur from the root-doctors and one root-doctor often works against another, the one that has the most power does the work. 1934 [see mojo1]. 1962 Jrnl. Amer. Folklore LXXV. 315 She finally went to a root doctor and was informed that her husband and three women had placed a spell upon her. |
| 1862 Ansted Channel Isl. ii. ix. 242 The rhizopoda or *root-footed animals. |
| 1875 Whitney Life Lang. 13 The *root-form of the verb. 1884 W. K. Parker Mammalian Desc. (1885) iv. 72 The primordial root-form of all the nobler creatures, now existing... A still lower root-form than the Tadpole. 1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIV. 239 A number of minute insects..; these are the root-forms (radicola) of Phylloxera. |
| 1902 L. H. Bailey Cycl. Amer. Hort. IV. 1545/2 The term *root-gall is usually applied to the abnormal enlargement of roots due to insects and other animal organisms. 1933 Jrnl. R. Hort. Soc. LVIII. 233 The absence of detailed information regarding the infective stage of the root-gall nematode and its life history has been remedied. 1977 J. L. Harper Population Biol. Plants xvi. 484 (caption) Biorrhiza pallida forms root galls and meristem galls on the oak at different seasons. |
| 1824 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Gardening (ed. 2) ii. 396 Such *root-grafts grow with uncommon vigour. |
| 1900 L. H. Bailey Cycl. Amer. Hort. II. 661/2 In the West apples at least are usually *root-grafted. 1951 F. J. Chittenden Dict. Gardening II. 919/2 Rhododendrons..are..frequently root-grafted, using roots of common species of their genus as stocks. 1956 New Biol. XX. 101 There is evidence that the fungus can infect trees only through wounds that penetrate the bark. The disease spreads locally by means of natural root grafts. |
| 1900 L. H. Bailey Cycl. Amer. Hort. II. 663/2 In the East..budded apple trees are preferable to *root-grafted trees. 1942 Kains & McQuesten Propagation of Plants (rev. ed.) xii. 294 Ten Walldow root-grafted trees were all dead but one limb on one tree. |
| 1707 Mortimer Husb. 513 marg., *Root grafting. c 1820 Edin. Encycl. XI. 196/1 Recourse is sometimes had to root-grafting. 1886 G. Nicholson Illustr. Dict. Gardening II. 91/2 Plants largely propagated by Root-grafting are Bignonias, Clematis, Hollyhocks, and Wistarias. 1977 J. L. Harper Population Biol. of Plants 235 It is doubtful whether any careful search has ever been made to detect the extent of root grafting in other communities of herbs. |
| 1864 Spencer Illustr. Progr. 372 It would become possible for plants of higher organization to find *roothold. 1880 I. L. Bird Japan I. 123 Even maples had found roothold in their gigantic stems. |
| 1889 Bull. U.S. Dept. Agric. Div. Entomol. No. 20 (title) The *root-knot disease of the peach, orange, and other plants in Florida, due to the work of Anguillula. Ibid., 9, I..can find no mention of the root-knot..prior to the year 1857. That year Hon. P. J. Berckmans..found this disease prevalent. Ibid., In 1876 I found the root-knot prevalent over Florida, and learned from old residents that as far back as 1805 it had been known. 1912 E. W. Swanton Brit. Plant-Galls viii. 107 Miss Ormerod first reported the occurrence of this pest, known as the ‘root-knot’ eelworm, in Britain. 1954 New Biol. XVI. 113 The Root Knot Eelworm..is a tropical or sub-tropical species which in Britain infests the soil of heated glasshouses... Its host-range includes almost all the decorative plants grown in conservatories. 1976 Daily Times (Lagos) 8 June 2/2 The workshop is discussing Integrated Crop Protection System with emphasis on root-knot diseases affecting economic crops. |
| 1895 Electrician 27 Sept. 721/1 A short time ago Dr. Fleming published a new and ingenious method of plotting wave forms with polar co-ordinates, and of directly obtaining therefrom the *root mean-square value. 1927 S. H. Long Navigational Wireless i. 7 Thus the effective value I equals the square root of the mean value of the squares of all the instantaneous values. This is often called the root-mean-square value, or R.M.S. value or virtual value. 1956 A. A. Townsend Struct. Turbulent Shear Flow iii. 51 The rate of increase of the decay scale is proportional to the root-mean-square turbulent velocity. 1978 Nature 9 Mar. 143/2 We note here that sound pressures as well as displacement are expressed as root-mean-squares. |
| [1899 J. B. Farmer Botany ix. 44 Plants which have not these nodules on their roots are unable to utilize the free atmospheric nitrogen.] 1907 F. Cavers Plant Biol. iii. 119 The *root-nodules of leguminous plants contain a micro-organism which fixes free atmospheric nitrogen. 1949 A. Nelson Introd. Bot. xxv. 391 The root nodule, so typical of this bacterial association with a legume, commences when the bacterium enters the root hair of the legume. 1976 Bell & Coombe tr. Strasburger's Textbk. Bot. (rev. ed.) 293 In the root nodules of alder, Hippophae, Eleagnus, and also probably of Myrica and Casuarina, the organisms concerned are symbiotic actinomycetes, also capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen. |
| 1875 Bennett & Dyer tr. Sach's Text-bk. Bot. iii. i. 600 (caption) Apparatus for observing the force with which water escapes under *root-pressure from the transverse section of a stem. 1896 Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B. CLXXXVI. 572 An important function of root-pressure, i.e., to dissolve up and clear out the gaseous contents of such conduits as are occupied by bubbles. 1931 E. C. Miller Plant Physiol. iv. 168 Under conditions of low transpiration or in the spring before the leaves are unfolded, water is forced into the conducting vessels of the root and up through the stem under pressures varying from a fraction of an atmosphere to several atmospheres. This pressure is evidenced by the bleeding of cut vines and branches of certain species of plants and is apparently connected with the exudation of water from the leaves of plants, which occurs under certain conditions. This pressure, which is set up in the fibrovascular bundles of the stem and root due to the water which is being forced in them is known as ‘root pressure’. 1976 Sci. Amer. May 104/3 Although Hales had discovered the existence of root pressure, he concluded that the roots are not solely responsible for the pressure of the sap in the branches. |
| 1851 B'ham & Midl. Gardener's Mag. Apr. 39 All plants that are breaking very strong should be *root-pruned. |
| 1841 T. M. Rivers (title), *Root Pruning of Pears and other Trees. |
| 1883 Science I. 369/2 The cause of the *root-rot in grape-vines. 1933 Jrnl. R. Hort. Soc. LVIII. 280 The occurrence of root-rot of Sweet Peas..is described as one of the causes possibly associated with the streak disease of Sweet Peas. 1978 Evans & Kumm Woman's Own Pot Plant Doctor 21/1 The commonest reason for all house plants dying off is root rot. |
| 1882 Garden Jan. 35/3 Roses..cease to grow altogether if their *root-run remain saturated. |
| 1977 McKnight & Tobler Bob Marley x. 127 What reaches our ears is no longer *roots reggae. 1978 Oxford Times (City ed.) 24 Feb. 15 This is a good example of roots reggae complete with chunky rhythm and ‘dub’ echoes. |
| a 1732 Boston Crook in Lot (1805) 110 Even when the *root-stroke is given in believers, the rod of pride buds again. a 1732 ― Mem. xi. (1899) 361 The gospel-doctrine has got a root-stroke by the condemning of that book. |
| 1932 Sun (Baltimore) 6 Sept. 6/11 The famous Wye oak..is reported to be 27 feet 8 inches in circumference four and a half feet above ground, but the measurement taken at this point is said to include large *root swells. |
| 1902 Forestry Q. I. 56 The influence of the enlarged base of the bole (*root-swelling) is appreciable at the breast-high point, and gives the stem a neiloid form. 1954 W. E. Hiley Woodland Managem. ix. 134 By girthing at 6 feet instead of 5 feet it may be possible to get away from the root swelling which usually occurs at the base of a large tree and often gives rise to inaccurate estimating. |
| 1887 H. Marshall-Ward in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B. CLXXVIII. 539 The first close investigation of these *root-tubercles (as they may be shortly termed) is due to Woronin. 1894 Knowledge 1 Mar. 68/1 (heading) The root-tubercles of peas, beans, and vetches. 1897 W. G. Smith tr. Tubeuf's Dis. Plants ix. 101 First-year alders without tubercles do not thrive in soil free from nitrogen..; when, however, provided with root-tubercles they assimilate nitrogen. |
| 1967 D. C. Tinling in Psychosomatic Med. XXIX. 483 (heading) Voodoo, *root work, and medicine. |
| 1970 M. Walker Prophets for New Day 29, I run down to Sis Areny's And told her what I seen ‘*Root-worker's out to git me What you reckon that there mean?’ |
| 1883 Science II. 143/2 These observations refer chiefly to the crown-borer, the *root-worm, and the crown-miner. |
[II.] [11.] [d.] Add to def:
spec. with reference to West Indian culture and society (
cf. sense *23 b).
| 1978 Sunday Times 29 Jan. 43/2 She is, she says, ‘roots’, and roots is ‘just our culture; the social standings that affect us as Jamaicans living in Jamaica’. 1986 City Limits 16 Oct. 41 For the DJ, crossing over is more than simply a move from roots to respectability or even from black to white audiences. |
[IV.] [23.] b. pl. used
attrib. (quasi-
adj.). Expressive of a distinctive (sometimes specified) ethnic origin or cultural identity;
freq. in
roots music; so, traditional, authentic;
spec. of black or W. Indian culture or society;
roots reggae (formerly at sense 23 a), a style of reggae music considered as an expression of the black Jamaicans' cultural identity.
| 1977 McKnight & Tobler Bob Marley x. 127 What reaches our ears is no longer roots reggae. 1978 Oxford Times (City ed.) 24 Feb. 15 This is a good example of roots reggae complete with chunky rhythm and ‘dub’ echoes. 1979 Trinidad Guardian 17 Dec. 7/2 What Ellsworth has described as ‘roots music’. 1983 N.Y. Times 13 Feb. ii. 28/3 Mr. Davis's romantic sensibility, Mr. Wadud's interest in mysticism and ritual, and Mr. Newton's fondness for black roots music like blues and gospel interact throughout the written and improvised portions of each piece. 1984 Southern Rag No. 22. 7/2 Closing our borders and ears to foreign roots music is the quickest way to guarantee the stagnation of our own traditions. 1986 City Limits 29 May 77 The ability to laugh at oppression, to bridge the gap between roots culture and mainstream pop. 1987 Times 14 Aug. 16/5 ‘Roots’ music in 1987 can be..practically anything, in fact, other than the dreaded post-Sixties, Anglo-American trinity of rock, pop and disco. 1988 Compact Disc & Video Insight (W. H. Smith) No. 4. 40/3 Skaggs has rekindled his enthusiasm and roots sensibilities. |
▪ II. root, n.2 dial. [f. root v.2] The action of the
vb. root2; chiefly in
phr. on the root.
| 1846 in N. & Q. 4th Ser. V. 326, I can give these old bones a root. 1892 J. A. Owen On Surrey Hills 56 Fur, fish, and feather need all look alive when Toby was on the root. 1895 Month Oct. 248 One of our rustic friends had a sow, with a litter of pigs, out on the root, as he termed it. |
▪ III. root, v.1 (
ruːt)
Forms: 4–6
rote (5
rotyn), 4–7
roote, 7–
root (6
wroot,
rowt); 5–6, 9
Sc. rute,
ruit, 9
dial. reut,
reeat,
reet, etc.
[f. root n.1 Cf. MSw. rota to make rootfast, rotas, rota sig, obs. Da. rode, to take root.] I. In
pa. pple. rooted.
Perhaps to some extent directly
f. root n.1 1. a. Filled or covered with roots.
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 163 Þat lond..bicam waste, and was roted oueral, and swo bicam wildernesse. |
b. Furnished or provided with roots; established or fixed by having taken root. Also
fig.| c 1400 Apol. Loll. 92 As we watteren plantis til þey han ben rotid, and þan we cessen to watter. c 1425 Eng. Conq. Irel. 20 Ther-for we willen withstond..þe yuel whil hit is comyn, ar hit be Iroted. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 321 b, Sence Luthers doctrine was depely roted & spred abrode. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. II. 290 Quhen heresie deiper was ruted. 1647 N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. i. lxvi. (1739) 143 Edward the first pursued the same course, especially in his first times, when he was but tenderly rooted. 1670 R. Baxter Cure Ch. Div. iii. v. Pref., The sin may be multiplyed and rooted past all hope of remedy. 1782 Cowper Poet, Oyster & Sensit. Pl. 16, I envy that unfeeling shrub, Fast rooted against ev'ry rub. 1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 584 The dissipation of prejudices, which are deeply rooted. 1868 J. H. Blunt Ref. Ch. Eng. I. 105 Her affection for him seems to have been very deeply rooted. 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. III. 339 Present arrangements were far too deeply rooted for..alteration. |
c. Fixed or firmly attached by the root or roots. Const.
in,
between,
to, etc. Also
transf. or
fig. (
cf. 2).
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xxxi. (Bodl. MS.), Suche postemes whanne þei beþ ibradde and iroted and ipiȝt in þe side. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 133 b, The more it groweth and spredeth his braunches, the more surely it is roted and fastned in the grounde. 1597 A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. 19/1 Some vlcerations are rotede betweene vaynes and tendones. 1681 Grew Musæum i. vii. ii. 165 His Horns rooted between the Eyes and the Snout. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 689 Hellebore, and Squills deep rooted in the Seas. 1717 Addison tr. Ovid's Met. ii. Wks. 1721 I. 165 She found Her self with-held, and rooted to the ground. 1748 Anson's Voy. ii. x. 244 The Jesuits being thus firmly rooted on California,..have already extended their jurisdiction quite across the country. 1801 Southey Thalaba xii. iii, The living flower that, rooted to the rock,..Shrunk down within its purple stem to sleep. 1837 Disraeli Venetia iii. vii, He remained rooted to the ground. 1861 Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 48 Another proof how entirely the German aliens were rooted in English soil. |
2. fig. Firmly fixed or established, deeply implanted,
in something:
a. Of abstract things;
esp. qualities, etc., in a person's nature.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 386 Alle Godes hesten..beoð ine luue iroted. 1340 Ayenb. 26 Þanne sseweþ hy þe kueades þet were y-hole and yroted ine þe herte. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VII. 401 It is hard to worche uppon þoughtes þat is i-roted in of longe tyme. c 1430 Pol., Rel., & L. Poems (1866) 43 That pasaunt Goodnes..whiche Rotide is in youre femynete. 1530 Palsgr. 694/1 If a vyce be ones rooted in a man, it is harde to get it away. 1570 Golding Justin xxix. 129 b, The naturall hatred that was knowen to bee roted in him against the Romaynes euen from his very childhoode. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxx. 179 By what means so many Opinions..have..been so deeply rooted in them. 1736 Berkeley Discourse Wks. 1871 III. 417 Obedience to all civil power is rooted in the religious fear of God. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iv. I. 456 The principle..was firmly rooted in the public mind. 1877 R. H. Hutton Ess. (ed. 2) I. 74 If the passion of avarice be not wholly rooted in him. |
b. Of persons in practices, opinions, etc.
| c 1325 Minor P. fr. Vernon MS. 663 Corteis knihthod and clergye, Þat wont were vices to forsake, Are nou..Rooted in Ribaudye. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 131 Þus þes possessioners..ben out of feiþ, hope & charite, & harde rotid in heresie. 1447 O. Bokenham Seyntys v. 305 In Crystys feyth rotyd so wel was he. 1451 J. Capgrave Life St. Aug. (E.E.T.S.) 45 What þei had be with him ȝeres and were roted in religion. 1547 Act 1 Edw. VI, c. 3 §7 Children..brought vp in idlenesse..be so rooted in it. 1611 Bible Eph. iii. 17 That yee being rooted and grounded in loue, May be able to comprehend..the loue of Christ. 1661 A. Wright Expos. Ps. xcii. 13 We cannot root firmly there, unless we are rooted in Jesus Christ. 1724 A. Collins Gr. Chr. Relig. 35 The Jews were so rooted in their notion of a Temporal Deliverer. 1823 Gillies Aristotle's Rhetoric x. 210 The man rooted in villainy will be guilty of all sorts of enormity. |
II. 3. a. trans. To furnish with roots; to fix or establish firmly; to implant deeply, attach strongly. Freq.
transf. or
fig., and
const. in,
into,
to, etc.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter xxii. 3 He gaf me lastynge in his biddyngis, and rotid me, and made me perfite in charite. a 1500 Bernardus De Cura Rei Fam. (E.E.T.S.) 226 For it fosteris and rutis þam in þar vice. 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. ii. iv. 162 Lest the base earth Should..Disdaine to roote the Sommer-swelling flowre. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 210 To festne and to rute it into the hartes of wandireris by the way. c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. cxlii, Roote pittie in thy heart. 1647 Hammond Power of Keys vii. 137 This course being thus taken for the planting and rooting all good resolutions. 1691 Dryden King Arthur iv. i, Amazement roots me to the ground. 1725 Pope Odyss. xiii. 189 The God arrests her with a sudden stroke, And roots her down an everlasting rock. 1816 Scott Old Mort. xxxviii, All Jenny's efforts to remove him from the garden served only to root him in it. 1841 Lytton Night & Morning i. i, Our poor Caleb had for years rooted his thoughts to his village. |
| refl. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. iii. 55 Al þe riche retynaunce þat roteþ hem on fals lyuynge Were bede to þat brudale. a 1400 Prymer (1891) 27 And y haue rotid me in a worschipful puple. 1535 Coverdale Ecclus. xxiv. 8 Let thy dwellinge be in Iacob,..& rote thy self amonge my chosen. 1810 Scott Lady of L. ii. xix, Firmer he roots him the ruder it blow. 1856 Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. i. 10 One of many of the rising merchants who were now able to root themselves on the land. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 188 Forms which have rooted themselves in language. |
b. Austral. slang. (See
quot. 1959.)
The placing of this sense is uncertain; it may be, or be apprehended as, a
fig. use of sense 10 b below.
| 1945 Baker Austral. Lang. viii. 152 The authentic digger form is Wouldn't it root you! A regimental paper ‘Wiry’ (1941) took its name from the first letters of the words in this phrase. 1951 D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 244 ‘It looks as though we're rooted, smacker,’ I told Herb. 1959 Baker Drum ii. 140 Root,..to outwit, baffle, exhaust, utterly confound (someone). Whence, to be rooted, to be exhausted or confounded; get rooted! Go to blazes! 1961 M. Calthorpe Dyehouse (1962) xl. 186 ‘He can get rooted, for all I care,’ Collins said bitterly. 1973 Telegraph (Brisbane) 15 Nov. 3/1 Mr. Whitlam later admitted having said in an aside: ‘It is what he put in his guts that rooted him.’ 1974 J. Powers Last of Knucklemen iii. ii. 93 ‘What the hell's goin' on here?’ ‘The Hun's rooted—that's what!’ ‘Done like a dinner!’ |
4. To cause (a cutting) to grow roots.
| 1824 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Gardening (ed. 2) ii. 400 All plants which are difficult to root..will be found in the first instance..to throw out roots only, from the ring of herbaceous matter. 1884 D. T. Fish Pop. Gardening I. 212/1 One strong argument in favour of rooting roses at that season [sc. spring] consists in the fact that they have all the summer before them to grow into plants. 1925 W. Watson Gardener's Assistant VI. 82/1 We root a Cactus by drying it in the sun. 1969 P. Thrower Every Day Gardening iii. 45/1 Cuttings which have been rooted under mist, or in a heated propagator, must be hardened off..before planting them in the open ground. |
5. a. intr. Of plants: To take or strike root.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 437/2 Rotyn, or take rote, as treys and herbys, radico. 1471 Ripley Comp. Alch. iii. xvii. in Ashm. (1652) 143 Then shall thy seeds both roote and spyre. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 30 The fyrst dooth roote all in length lyke the Radishe. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, v. ii. 46 Her fallow Leas, The Darnell, Hemlock, and ranke Femetary, Doth root vpon. 1673 Lady's Call. i. v. §28 A tender plant, that will scarce root in stiff or rocky ground. 1707 Mortimer Husb. (1721) II. 125 They root very deep, therefore plant your sets pretty deep. 1763 Mills Pract. Husb. IV. 152 That no crop will thrive well.., unless the ground be trenched deeper than the thyme rooted. 1801 Farmer's Mag. Jan. 104 The potatoes continued to root well. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 315 There are several varieties of the Amaryllis that do not root so freely as others. 1860 Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. cx. III. 31 They may not come to fruit now, but they will begin to root. |
b. fig. To take root; to settle, establish oneself. Freq. with
in.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter xv. 2 Þai haf festid þaire hope in þe land of heuen, and rotid in luf. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. x. 78 Dowel..saueþ þe soule, þat sunne haþ no miht..ne to Reste, ne to Rooten in þe herte. 1382 Wyclif Ecclus. xxiv. 16 And I rootede in a puple wrshipid. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 132 So y{supt} the grace of god & his vertues may rote in our soules. 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. lxxiv. 22 That comon errour of theirs, wherein they rooted, is quite dasshed. a 1625 Cope in Gutch Coll. Cur. I. 121 True honour will ever root, where false glories fade like flowers. 1688 Crowne Darius iv, Oh! thou art rooting deeper in my heart, Tear thyself from me. 1740 Somerville Hobbinol i. 77 What Love can decay That roots so deep! 1753 Foote Englishm. in Paris 11, Now I'll redeem my error, and root for ever here. 1869 M{supc}Laren Serm. Ser. ii. vii. 113 The small continuous vices, which root under ground and honeycomb the soul. |
c. To have a basis
in something.
| 1882 New Eng. Hist. Reg. XXXVI. 181 These local divisions..root in the military institutions of the ancient Teutons. 1941 Sun (Baltimore) 25 Nov. 14/3 The trouble into which he intervened roots in a controversy over whether welding is a separate ‘art’ or not. 1955 E. Pound Section: Rock-Drill lxxxix. 56 The Civil War rooted in tariff. |
III. 6. trans. To pull, tear, drag, or dig
up by the roots; to uproot. Also
fig.| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xi. xiii. (Bodl. MS.), Þondre..destroieþ hiȝe treen & roteþ hem vp wiþ here blostringe oute of grounde. Ibid. xvii. cl, Whan þei [thorns] beþ ifalle oþer roted [1495 rotyd vp] þei beþ ibound..to fagettes & ibrende. 1565 Cooper Thesaurus s.v. Extirpo, Extirpare & funditus tollere vitia, to roote vp and take cleane away. 1611 Bible 1 Kings xiv. 15 The Lord..shall root vp Israel out of this good land, which hee gaue to their fathers. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. ii. 414 Root up wild Olives from thy labour'd Lands. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 451 ¶3 It would..root up the Corn and Tares together. 1737 Gentl. Mag. VII. 48/2 As if they intended.. to root up all Order and Harmony of Government. 1847 W. C. L. Martin Ox 37/2 The utility of rooting up as much as possible all noxious plants from pasture grounds, and the ditches around them, is palpable. |
7. a. To pull, dig, or take
out by the roots; hence
fig., to extirpate, exterminate, destroy.
Cf. outroot v., and the variant
rout v.
| c 1450 tr. De Imitatione i. iii. 5 If men wolde yeue so gret diligence to rote oute vices. 1535 Coverdale 1 Kings xviii. 4 Whan Iesabel roted out y⊇ prophetes of y⊇ Lorde. a 1586 Sidney Ps. v. ii, Thou..shall roote out the tongues to lyeing bent. 1610 Holland Camden's Britain (1637) 163 Under a faire pretence and shew of rooting out superstition. 1687 A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. ii. 23 So many Soldiers would be sent out against them, that they would be utterly rooted out. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 505 ¶5 It is the chief Business of this Paper to root out popular Errors. 1782 F. Burney Cecilia ix. vi, Not all her unwillingness..could now root out her suspicions. 1853 Kingsley Hypatia xxix, You may root out your own human natures if you will. 1879 Froude Cæsar xvii. 288 The punishment fell on his tribe. The Eburones were completely rooted out. |
b. Const.
of,
from.
| 1535 Coverdale Job xviii. 14 All his comforte and hope shal be roted out of his dwellynge. ― Amos ii. 3, I will rote out the iudge from amonge them. 1667 Milton P.L. vi. 855 He meant Not to destroy, but root them out of Heav'n. c 1715 Swift Serm. iii. Wks. 1751 XIII. 26 This would root out Envy and Malice from the Heart of Man. 1729 Law Serious C. xi. (1732) 164 He that is endeavouring to..root out of his mind all those passions of pride. |
c. intr. To die
out completely.
| 1828 P. Cunningham N.S. Wales (ed. 3) II. 2 By supposing..that their descendants gradually rooted out or became blended with the aborigines. |
d. To raise completely
out of something.
| 1844 Mrs. Browning Drama of Exile Poems 1850 I. 62 Root out thine eyes, Sweet, from the dreary ground. |
8. a. To clear
away (
† forth) completely.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. clxxx. (Bodl. MS.), He schal be porled & perissched & rased and roted awey. 1567 Gude & Godlie Ball. (S.T.S.) 97 Quha..dois blaspheme the kynde and liberall, Sall rutit be furth of memoriall. 1570 Satir. Poems Reform. xiii. 21 Rutit furth clene out of memorie. 1871 Tyndall Frag. Sci. (1879) I. ix. 296 A glacier is undoubtedly competent to root such masses bodily away. |
b. To drag, tear, remove by force,
from a place.
| 1567 Gude & Godlie Ball. (S.T.S.) 104 Thay sall us rute from the ground. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis iii. (Arb.) 71, I drew neere, mynding too roote fro cel earthye the thicket. 1624 Quarles Sion's Elegies iv. 21 To see thy brother's seede Ruin'd and rent, and rooted from the earth. 1746 P. Francis tr. Horace, Sat. i. iii. 106 Since we never from the breast of fools Can root their passions. 1805 Southey Madoc ii. xvi, Bear away These wretches!..And root them from the earth. |
c. Without
const. To uproot, outroot.
| 1582 Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 64 Yf you father also Youre self too murther, too roote your progenye purpose. 1629 Gaule Holy Madn. 203 We cannot root them, we must restraine them. 1773–83 Hoole Orl. Furioso xxiv. 346 The trees, and cave he view'd; Those lopt and rooted, this in fragments hew'd. |
9. To lop the roots or rootlets from.
| 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 19 A field of 25 acres of excellent Swedes was pulled, rooted, and topped. |
10. Miscellaneous senses of uncertain affinity. (Perh. properly developments of
root v.
2)
a. trans. and intr. To kick,
esp. in the backside.
slang (chiefly
Schoolboys').
| 1890 Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang II. 186/1 Root, to (schools and London), to give one a kick behind. 1914 ‘I. Hay’ Lighter Side School Life ii. 52 We rooted Sowerby afterwards for grinning. 1934 Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Jan. 32/2 Give the horse that can root a bit to the horse⁓breaker or the head stockman is the general rule, or, better still, to the blacks. 1946 B. Marshall George Brown's Schooldays xxxvii. 145 Rooting them [sc. new pupils] up the backside is the only way of dealing with them. |
b. Austral. coarse slang.
trans. (
usu. with a male subject). To copulate with;
intr., to copulate, to engage in sexual intercourse. Also in
phr. to root like a rattlesnake, to copulate vigorously.
| 1958 R. M. Stuart in R. Chamberlain Stuart Affair (1973) ii. 12, I took her bathers off. Then I raped her. She was hard to root. 1966 P. White Solid Mandala 185 We'll root together so good you'll shoot out the other side of Christmas. 1969 Private Eye 1 Aug. 14 The Pope's a Jew if that jam tart doesn't root like a rattlesnake. 1974 K. Cook Bloodhouse 110 We found this bloody little poofter down on the beach fiddling with a bird... Couldn't even root her. |
▪ IV. root, v.2 (
ruːt)
[Later form of wroot v., probably through association with prec. See also rout v. in this sense.] 1. a. intr. Of swine: To turn up the soil by grubbing with the snout; to dig with the snout in search of food.
| 1538 Leland Itin. (1768) III. 19 If a Man do but cast corn wher Hogges have rotid, it wyl cum up. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 668 [Swine will] rise in flesh..the sooner if they be permitted to roote now and then in the mire. 1653 H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. xlix. 190 Wild Boars, that were rooting in the earth near to a pond. 1727 Swift To Delany Wks. 1751 VII. 235 A Sooterkin, Which..in the Soil began to root, And litter'd at Parnassus' Foot. 1850 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XI. ii. 599 Store-pigs..may be allowed to root in fallows or on the dung-heap. 1871 L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. (1894) ix. 212 The Alpine pig..roots contentedly round the châlets. |
| fig. 1809 Ann. Reg. 745 Whilst others were thus rooting for preferment, Mr. Paley was engaged in the composition of an important work. |
b. transf. of certain fishes, worms, etc.
| 1653 Walton Angler xi. 196 The Barbell..loves to live..where it is gravelly, and in the gravel will root and dig with his nose like a Hog. c 1730 Swift Dick Wks. 1751 XIII. 218 As when from rooting in a Bin,..A lively Maggot sallies out. 1883 Science II. 154/1 Many fishes..have the habit of rooting in the mud for their food. 1890 Illustr. Lond. News 13 Sept. 330/1 Disturbing the morning meal of the crows rooting in the litter-heaps. |
c. dial. and
colloq. To poke about, rummage; to pry or poke
into a thing; to lounge or idle about, etc. Also
const. about,
around.
| 1831 S. Lover Leg. Irel. Ser. i. 189 She run rootin' into every corner o' the room, lookin' for it. 1892 Mrs. H. Ward David Grieve iv. xi, She took him about with her, ‘rootin’, as she expressed it, after the hens and pigs. 1896 Crockett Grey Man xxxvi, There I was rooting and exploring. 1904 in Eng. Dial. Dict. V. 151/2 They like to rute about the house. 1916 Joyce Portrait of Artist v. 203 He allowed his mother to..root into the folds of his ears. 1920 R. Macaulay Potterism i. ii. 20 Watching Tane's..hand with its short square fingers rooting in the sand for shells. 1943 V. Palmer in Coast to Coast 1942 29 Charlie rooted about in the nose of the dinghy drawn up above the tide. 1977 C. Rocks Winter's Tales 23 132, I rooted around till I found the kettle. |
d. colloq. (
orig. U.S. slang) To cheer
for a (baseball, etc.) team. Also
transf., to be active
for a person or thing by giving support, encouragement, or applause. Also without
const.| 1889 N.Y. Semi-Weekly Tribune 5 Nov. 5/4 Murphy has done little but ‘root’ for the Giants this year. 1895 in Funk's Standard Dict. 1895 J. S. Wood Yale Yarns 152 We rooted hard, too, and did a lot of shouting and yelling. 1897 Flandrau Harvard Episodes 164 The fellows who had promised to vote for Wolcott..were beginning now to ‘root’ for him vigorously. 1922 S. Lewis Babbitt v. 66 Zilla keeps rooting for a nice expensive vacation. 1943 Crisis July 201/3 The papers of Los Angeles crowed... They rooted and cheered. 1951 Sport 30 Mar.–5 Apr. 3/1 If the rules of the tournament made it possible for Stan to be transferred to Newcastle tomorrow, then the whole country would be rooting for the ‘Magpies’ on April 28th. 1951 in M. McLuhan Mech. Bride (1967) 8/1 He rooted fiercely for the underdog, perhaps because he was so much the underdog himself. 1959 N. Mailer Advts. for Myself (1961) 400 If he dares not to castrate his hatred of society..then I would have to root for him because he may have been born to write a great novel. 1967 Boston Sunday Herald Mag. 9 Apr. 4/3 You'll find it becomes a whole different game from just sitting in your armchair, rooting blindly. 1971 A. Burgess MF xii. 140 A popcorn-eating audience roots for two youths fighting a huge engulfing python. 1976 A. Miller Inside Outside vii. 81, I..wound up in front of the Visiting Committee with the Governor rooting for me. |
e. root hog or die, used of or addressed to persons, implying the necessity of labour or exertion to maintain life or prosperity. Also as
attrib. phr. N. Amer.| 1834 D. Crockett Narr. Life viii. 60 We therefore determined to go on the old saying, root hog or die. 1843 Amer. Pioneer II. 419 This letter exhibits his as well as my own case in that day; for it was ‘root hog or die’, and hard times have come back again! 1879 A. W. Tourgée Fool's Errand xxv. 150 The ‘root-hog-or-die’ policy. 1904 N.Y. Even. Post 20 Aug. 4 ‘The school and college’, explained plains President Eliot, ‘cannot use the method of Nature—root, hog, or die.’ 1931 J. T. Adams Epic of Amer. i. 37 At the beginning of most settlements it was ‘root, hog, or die’ for all. 1976 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 9 June 41/6 Many of that generation, however, no longer put up with that root-hog-or-die kind of motivation. |
2. trans. a. To turn over, dig up, with the snout. Also
fig., to search
out, hunt
up.
| 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 636 He..hauing thee at vantage..Wold roote these beauties, as he root's the mead. 1607 ― Timon v. i. 168 Alcibiades.., Who like a Bore too sauage, doth root vp His Countries peace. 1691 Ray Creation i. (1701) 155 He is provided with a long and strong Snout.., conveniently formed for the rooting and turning up the Ground. 1717 Pope Iliad xii. 166 On every side..they..root the shrubs and lay the forest bare. 1802 Sport. Mag. XX. 64 Lonely watch'd he the grunters all day, As they rooted the stubbles for shack. 1866 Daily Telegr. 12 Jan. 5/5 There is a reason for everything,..if we will only strive to root and think it out. 1894 Hall Caine Manxman v. v, From underneath the sofa in the parlour he rooted up a brown paper parcel. |
b. To form (holes) by rooting.
rare—1.
| 1854 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XV. i. 21 They enforced penalties for letting hogs root holes in embankments. |
Add:
[2.] c. To cheer or spur (someone)
on. Chiefly
N. Amer. (
orig. U.S.).
| 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §223/9 Urge; incite..root on. 1961 C. W. New Life H. Brougham to 1830 202 There were competitions between classes... Their respective monitors rooted them on. 1984 J. Heller God Knows ix. 231 You were in command. I know what you were doing. You were probably rooting him on all the time, weren't you? 1988 Boxing Nov. 22/3 Sugar Ray's mother, who rooted him on enthusiastically from ringside, had shadow-boxed a better fight than her son's. |
▪ V. root obs. form of
rot,
rote;
dial. f. rut.