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