Root \Root\, v. t.
To turn up or to dig out with the snout; as, the swine roots
the earth.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Root \Root\, n. [Icel. r[=o]t (for vr[=o]t); akin to E. wort,
and perhaps to root to turn up the earth. See Wort.]
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.
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2. An edible or esculent root, especially of such plants as
produce a single root, as the beet, carrot, etc.; as, the
root crop.
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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.
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They were the roots out of which sprang two
distinct people. --Locke.
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(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." --Chaucer.
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The love of money is a root of all kinds of
evil. --1 Tim. vi.
10 (rev. Ver.)
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(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. --Busby.
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(f) The lowest place, position, or part. "Deep to the
roots of hell." --Milton. "The roots of the
mountains." --Southey.
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4. (Astrol.) The time which to reckon in making calculations.
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When a root is of a birth yknowe [known]. --Chaucer.
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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. See Illust. of
Mangrove.
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.
--Gray.
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." --Milton.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Root \Root\, v. i. [AS. wr[=o]tan; akin to wr[=o]t a snout,
trunk, D. wroeten to root, G. r["u]ssel snout, trunk,
proboscis, Icel. r[=o]ta to root, and perhaps to L. rodere to
gnaw (E. rodent) or to E. root, n.]
1. To turn up the earth with the snout, as swine.
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2. Hence, to seek for favor or advancement by low arts or
groveling servility; to fawn servilely.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Root \Root\ (r[=oo]t), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Rooted; p. pr. &
vb. n. Rooting.]
1. To fix the root; to enter the earth, as roots; to take
root and begin to grow.
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In deep grounds the weeds root deeper. --Mortimer.
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2. To be firmly fixed; to be established.
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If any irregularity chanced to intervene and to
cause misappehensions, he gave them not leave to
root and fasten by concealment. --Bp. Fell.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Root \Root\, v. i. [Cf. Rout to roar.]
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.]
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Root \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.
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2. To tear up by the root; to eradicate; to extirpate; --
with up, out, or away. "I will go root away the noisome
weeds." --Shak.
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The Lord rooted them out of their land . . . and
cast them into another land. --Deut. xxix.
28.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
root
n 1: (botany) the usually underground organ that lacks buds or
leaves or nodes; absorbs water and mineral salts;
usually it anchors the plant to the ground
2: (linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are
removed; "thematic vowels are part of the stem" [syn: root
word, base, stem, theme, radical]
3: the place where something begins, where it springs into
being; "the Italian beginning of the Renaissance";
"Jupiter was the origin of the radiation"; "Pittsburgh is
the source of the Ohio River"; "communism's Russian root"
[syn: beginning, origin, rootage, source]
4: a number that when multiplied by itself some number of times
equals a given number
5: the set of values that give a true statement when
substituted into an equation [syn: solution]
6: someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote
than a grandparent) [syn: ancestor, ascendant, ascendent,
antecedent] [ant: descendant]
7: a simple form inferred as the common basis from which
related words in several languages can be derived by
linguistic processes [syn: etymon]
8: the part of a tooth that is embedded in the jaw and serves
as support [syn: tooth root]
v 1: take root and begin to grow; "this plant roots quickly"
2: come into existence, originate; "The problem roots in her
depression"
3: plant by the roots
4: dig with the snout; "the pig was rooting for truffles" [syn:
rout, rootle]
5: take sides with; align oneself with; show strong sympathy
for; "We all rooted for the home team"; "I'm pulling for
the underdog"; "Are you siding with the defender of the
title?" [syn: side, pull]
6: become settled or established and stable in one's residence
or life style; "He finally settled down" [syn: settle, take
root, steady down, settle down]
7: cause to take roots
WordNet (r) 2.0
260 Moby Thesaurus words for "root":
IC analysis, accidence, acclaim, affix, affixation, allomorph,
ancestors, anchor, antecedents, applaud, base, basis,
beat the bushes, bed, bed on, bedrock, beginning, birthplace,
boost, bottom, bottom on, bound morpheme, bring to light, bud,
build on, bulb, bulbil, burgeon, burrow, burst forth, catch, cause,
cheer, cheer on, clap, clap the hands, cognate, commencement,
completely, conception, confirm, conjugation, core, corm, cradle,
cutting, declension, deep-dye, define, delve, derivation,
derivative, descent, destroy, develop, difference of form, dig,
dig out, dig up, discover, doublet, drive on, egg on, eliminate,
embed, enclitic, encore, encourage, engraft, engrave, entirely,
entrench, eponym, eradicate, essentiality, establish, etch, etymon,
explore, exterminate, extirpate, family, family tree, fatherland,
ferret, find, fix, flourish, footing, forage, forebears,
forefathers, formative, found, found on, foundation, fount,
fountain, fountainhead, free form, frisk, gemmate, genealogy,
genesis, germinate, give a hand, go through, goad on, grass roots,
ground, ground on, groundwork, grow, grow rank, hail, hasten on,
head, hear it for, heart, heritage, hie on, hound on, house, hunt,
hurry on, imbed, immediate constituent analysis, impact, implant,
impress, imprint, inception, infix, infixation, inflection,
infrastructure, ingrain, inscribe, jam, leaf, leaf out, leave,
lineage, lodge, look around, look round, look through, luxuriate,
marrow, morph, morpheme, morphemic analysis, morphemics,
morphology, morphophonemics, motherland, nose, nose around, origin,
original, origination, origins, overgrow, overrun, pack, paradigm,
pedigree, pith, plant, poke, poke around, predecessors, prefix,
prefixation, primitive, print, proclitic, provenance, provenience,
pry, pullulate, put forth, put forth leaves, put out buds, quick,
quintessence, radical, radically, radicle, radix, ransack,
research, rhizome, riot, rise, rock bottom, root and branch,
root for, root on, root out, root up, roots, rootstock, rummage,
search, search through, seat, set, set in, set on, settle, shoot,
shoot up, smell around, soul, source, speed on, spread, sprout,
sprout up, spur on, stamp, stem, stereotype, stick, stick fast,
stock, strike root, stuff, substance, substratum, suffix,
suffixation, support, take root, tap, taproot, theme, thrive,
totally, tuber, tubercle, turn up, uncover, undergird, underlie,
underpinning, unearth, uproot, upspear, upsprout, urge on, utterly,
vegetate, wedge, well, wellhead, whip on, wholly, word-formation
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
root n. [Unix] 1. The superuser account (with user name `root') that
ignores permission bits, user number 0 on a Unix system. The term
avatar is also used. 2. The top node of the system directory
structure; historically the home directory of the root user, but
probably named after the root of an (inverted) tree. 3. By extension,
the privileged system-maintenance login on any OS. See root mode, go
root, see also wheel.
Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)
root
1. The Unix superuser account (with
user name "root" and user ID 0) that overrides file
permissions. The term avatar is also used. By extension,
the privileged system-maintenance login on any operating
system.
See root mode, go root, wheel.
[{Jargon File]
(1994-10-27)
2. root directory.
(1996-11-21)
3. root node.
(1998-11-14)
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)
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