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Root   /rut/   Listen
noun
Root  n.  
1.
(Bot.)
(a)
The underground portion of a plant, whether a true root or a tuber, a bulb or rootstock, as in the potato, the onion, or the sweet flag.
(b)
The descending, and commonly branching, axis of a plant, increasing in length by growth at its extremity only, not divided into joints, leafless and without buds, and having for its offices to fix the plant in the earth, to supply it with moisture and soluble matters, and sometimes to serve as a reservoir of nutriment for future growth. A true root, however, may never reach the ground, but may be attached to a wall, etc., as in the ivy, or may hang loosely in the air, as in some epiphytic orchids.
2.
An edible or esculent root, especially of such plants as produce a single root, as the beet, carrot, etc.; as, the root crop.
3.
That which resembles a root in position or function, esp. as a source of nourishment or support; that from which anything proceeds as if by growth or development; as, the root of a tooth, a nail, a cancer, and the like. Specifically:
(a)
An ancestor or progenitor; and hence, an early race; a stem. "They were the roots out of which sprang two distinct people."
(b)
A primitive form of speech; one of the earliest terms employed in language; a word from which other words are formed; a radix, or radical.
(c)
The cause or occasion by which anything is brought about; the source. "She herself... is root of bounty." "The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil."
(d)
(Math.) That factor of a quantity which when multiplied into itself will produce that quantity; thus, 3 is a root of 9, because 3 multiplied into itself produces 9; 3 is the cube root of 27.
(e)
(Mus.) The fundamental tone of any chord; the tone from whose harmonics, or overtones, a chord is composed.
(f)
The lowest place, position, or part. "Deep to the roots of hell." "The roots of the mountains."
4.
(Astrol.) The time which to reckon in making calculations. "When a root is of a birth yknowe (known)."
Aerial roots. (Bot.)
(a)
Small roots emitted from the stem of a plant in the open air, which, attaching themselves to the bark of trees, etc., serve to support the plant.
(b)
Large roots growing from the stem, etc., which descend and establish themselves in the soil.
Multiple primary root (Bot.), a name given to the numerous roots emitted from the radicle in many plants, as the squash.
Primary root (Bot.), the central, first-formed, main root, from which the rootlets are given off.
Root and branch, every part; wholly; completely; as, to destroy an error root and branch.
Root-and-branch men, radical reformers; a designation applied to the English Independents (1641). See Citation under Radical, n., 2.
Root barnacle (Zool.), one of the Rhizocephala.
Root hair (Bot.), one of the slender, hairlike fibers found on the surface of fresh roots. They are prolongations of the superficial cells of the root into minute tubes.
Root leaf (Bot.), a radical leaf. See Radical, a., 3 (b).
Root louse (Zool.), any plant louse, or aphid, which lives on the roots of plants, as the Phylloxera of the grapevine. See Phylloxera.
Root of an equation (Alg.), that value which, substituted for the unknown quantity in an equation, satisfies the equation.
Root of a nail (Anat.), the part of a nail which is covered by the skin.
Root of a tooth (Anat.), the part of a tooth contained in the socket and consisting of one or more fangs.
Secondary roots (Bot.), roots emitted from any part of the plant above the radicle.
To strike root, To take root, to send forth roots; to become fixed in the earth, etc., by a root; hence, in general, to become planted, fixed, or established; to increase and spread; as, an opinion takes root. "The bended twigs take root."


verb
Root  v. t.  To turn up or to dig out with the snout; as, the swine roots the earth.


Root  v. t.  
1.
To plant and fix deeply in the earth, or as in the earth; to implant firmly; hence, to make deep or radical; to establish; used chiefly in the participle; as, rooted trees or forests; rooted dislike.
2.
To tear up by the root; to eradicate; to extirpate; with up, out, or away. "I will go root away the noisome weeds." "The Lord rooted them out of their land... and cast them into another land."


Root  v. i.  
1.
To turn up the earth with the snout, as swine.
2.
Hence, to seek for favor or advancement by low arts or groveling servility; to fawn servilely.


Root  v. i.  (past & past part. rooted; pres. part. rooting)  
1.
To fix the root; to enter the earth, as roots; to take root and begin to grow. "In deep grounds the weeds root deeper."
2.
To be firmly fixed; to be established. "If any irregularity chanced to intervene and to cause misappehensions, he gave them not leave to root and fasten by concealment."


Root  v. i.  To shout for, or otherwise noisly applaud or encourage, a contestant, as in sports; hence, to wish earnestly for the success of some one or the happening of some event, with the superstitious notion that this action may have efficacy; usually with for; as, the crowd rooted for the home team. (Slang or Cant, U. S.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Root" Quotes from Famous Books



... it: "Tell me now, where are my brothers?" The pigeon replied: "I will; only do me no harm. Immediately behind your father's town is a water-mill, and in the water-mill are three wands that have sprouted up. Cut these three wands up from below, and strike with them upon their root; an iron door will immediately open into a large vault. In that vault are many people, old and young, rich and poor, small and great, wives and maidens, so that you could settle a populous empire; there, too, are your brothers." When the pigeon had told ...
— Folk Tales Every Child Should Know • Various
... had no opportunity of judging how you felt toward him. I also said, that I thought you knew very little of each other, and that his attachment must have grown up too rapidly to have taken a very strong root. But there I found I was mistaken. For he assured me that it was from esteem of your character, and admiration of your energy, courage, and constancy under adversity, not from the mere prettiness of your face, or niceness of your manners, that he ...
— Valerie • Frederick Marryat
... is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists, under different shapes, in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but in those of the popular form it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly ...
— Key-Notes of American Liberty • Various
... explain. According as the soil is better or worse, it shoots higher or lower; the tuft of the first cutting, which grows round, does not exceed eight inches in heighth and breadth: the second cutting rises sometimes to a foot. In cutting the Indigo you are to set your foot upon the root, in order to prevent the pulling it out of the earth; and to be upon your guard not to cut yourself, as the tool ...
— History of Louisisana • Le Page Du Pratz
... knowing in my Canadian oat-straw. We marked out the bed,—as the robins, meadow-larks, and bluebirds directed. Lois then looked up article "Radish" in the "Farmer's Dictionary," and we found the lists of "Long White Naples," "White Spanish," "Black Spanish," "Long Scarlet," "White Turnip-Root," "Purple Turnip," and the rest, for two columns, which we should and should not plant. All that was nothing to us. We were to plant radish-seeds, which we had bought, as such, from Mr. Swett. How deep to plant them, how ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 83, September, 1864 • Various


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