▪ I. rooter1
(ˈruːtə(r))
[f. root v.1 or n.1]
1. a. An extirpator, eradicater, uprooter (of something). Usually const. out, up.
| 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 37 b, Whiche had alwayes ingendred the roters out of Heresyes. 1570 Golding Justin xvi. 85 b, Cassander the father of them, the rooter vp of the kynges house. 1622 Massinger & Dekker Virg. Martyr i. i, The strongest champions of the Pagan gods, And rooter out of Christians. 1650 Arnway Tablet (1661) 154 The rooters up of religion and monarchy. Ibid. 184 Rooters of truth and order. 1862 Rawlinson Anc. Mon., Chaldæa vii. 164 The destroyer of crops, the rooter-up of trees. |
b. A machine for loosening the surface of the ground.
| 1950 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Oct. 333/2 At first a small rooter was used which was designed for scarifying pavements and roads and which could be drawn by a 40 h.p. tractor. 1965 G. J. Williams Econ. Geol. N.Z. Plate xxxix, This very pure calcareous material is soft enough to be excavated by rooters, and in consequence can be produced at low cost. |
2. spec. A ‘root-and-branch’ man. Now Hist.
| 1642 Sir E. Dering Sp. on Relig. 161 The Rooters, the Antiprelaticke party declaim against me. 1660 South Serm. (1717) IV. 27 The Rooters and Through-Reformers made clean Work with the Church. 1824 Southey Bk. of Church xvii. I. 378 Vane and Cromwell, who now began to appear among the rooters as they were called. 1900 W. A. Shaw Hist. Eng. Ch. 1640–60 I. 79 Its numbers included more than the mere Rooters. |
3. slang. (See quots.)
It is not certain that these belong here.
| 1840 Gen. Mercer in R. J. Macdonald Hist. Dress R.A. (1899) 50 The remainder of the hair was gathered into a queue behind..and tied close to the head; this we called a rooter. 1860 Slang Dict. (ed. 2) 201 Rooter, anything good, or of a prime quality; ‘that is a Rooter’, i.e., a first-rate one of the sort. |
▪ II. ˈrooter2 colloq. (chiefly U.S.)
[f. root v.2]
1. A pig which roots. Also transf.
| 1648 Hexham ii, Een Wroeter, a Rooter, or a Grubber. 1681 T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 29 (1713) I. 191 If he be not a Hog,..he is always a Rooter, whining, and grunting. 1864 Daily Telegr. 27 Sept., He is a very ugly pig—a cross between the Irish ‘greyhound’ and the Yankee ‘rooter’. 1886 P. Robinson Teetotum Trees 25 The pig may..grow gaunt and fierce, a rooter among strange wild foods. |
2. colloq. (chiefly U.S.) One who cheers or ‘roots’ for a (baseball, etc.) team. Also transf., one who supports or encourages another; a warm advocate, a partisan.
| 1890 N.Y. Press 8 July 6/1 At this juncture the New York rooters began to ‘pull’ for the home team, but the effort was useless, not a man..succeeded in reaching first base. 1895 in Funk's Standard Dict. 1901 Speaker 19 Jan. 439 At the first class cricket matches for years he has been what in the States they call a rooter. 1901 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 31 Oct. 4/3 ‘What makes him look so very white?’ inquired the fairy maid. ‘He's had the starch knocked out of him,’ the woolly rooter said. 1931 L. Steffens Autobiogr. II. iii. xxxiii. 593 They..don't ask about, they don't hear of, the always existing few quiet students with concealed gifts in the rooters at a football game. 1939 G. Ade Let. 7 July (1973) 212, I attended the [1912 Republican] convention as a spectator and also as a rooter for Theodore Roosevelt. 1952 Manch. Guardian Weekly 12 June 3/3 General of the Army Eisenhower..came..to hold his first political press conference before the New York reporters... There was also present a motley and vociferous band of rooters. 1959 Times Lit. Suppl. 6 Nov. p. xix/1 The exclusive audience that goes to Twickenham or Lord's is replaced by millions of rooters. 1963 D. Ogilvy Confessions Advert. Man i. 14 This will give us 49,700 rooters for Ogilvy, Benson and Mather. 1978 N.Y. Times 29 Mar. b 5/1 The Wildcats' coach..had walked back into the stands to embrace his family and shake hands with some rooters with blue and white buttons. |