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root

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root

1  [root, root]
Use root in a Sentence
–noun
1. a part of the body of a plant that develops, typically, from the radicle and grows downward into the soil, anchoring the plant and absorbing nutriment and moisture.
2. a similar organ developed from some other part of a plant, as one of those by which ivy clings to its support.
3. any underground part of a plant, as a rhizome.
4. something resembling or suggesting the root of a plant in position or function: roots of wires and cables.
5. the embedded or basal portion of a hair, tooth, nail, nerve, etc.
6. the fundamental or essential part: the root of a matter.
7. the source or origin of a thing: The love of money is the root of all evil.
8. a person or family as the source of offspring or descendants.
9. an offshoot or scion.
10. Mathematics.
a. Also called nth root. a quantity that, when multiplied by itself a certain number of times, produces a given quantity: The number 2 is the square root of 4, the cube root of 8, and the fourth root of 16.
b. rth root, the quantity raised to the power 1/r: The number 2 is the 1/3 root of 8.
c. a value of the argument of a function for which the function takes the value zero.
11. Grammar.
a. a morpheme that underlies an inflectional or derivational paradigm, as dance, the root in danced, dancer, or ten-, the root of Latin tendere “to stretch.”
b. such a form reconstructed for a parent language, as *sed-, the hypothetical proto-Indo-European root meaning “sit.”
12. roots,
a. a person's original or true home, environment, and culture: He's lived in New York for twenty years, but his roots are in France.
b. the personal relationships, affinity for a locale, habits, and the like, that make a country, region, city, or town one's true home: He lived in Tulsa for a few years, but never established any roots there.
c. personal identification with a culture, religion, etc., seen as promoting the development of the character or the stability of society as a whole.
13. Music.
a. the fundamental tone of a compound tone or of a series of harmonies.
b. the lowest tone of a chord when arranged as a series of thirds; the fundamental.
14. Machinery.
a. (in a screw or other threaded object) the narrow inner surface between threads. Compare crest (def. 18), flank (def. 7).
b. (in a gear) the narrow inner surface between teeth.
15. Australian Informal. an act of sexual intercourse.
16. Shipbuilding. the inner angle of an angle iron.
–verb (used without object)
17. to become fixed or established.
–verb (used with object)
18. to fix by or as if by roots: We were rooted to the spot by surprise.
19. to implant or establish deeply: Good manners were rooted in him like a second nature.
20. to pull, tear, or dig up by the roots (often fol. by up or out).
21. to extirpate; exterminate; remove completely (often fol. by up or out): to root out crime.
—Idioms
22. root and branch, utterly; entirely: to destroy something root and branch.
23. take root,
a. to send out roots; begin to grow.
b. to become fixed or established: The prejudices of parents usually take root in their children.
Origin:
bef. 1150; (n.) ME; late OE rōt < ON rōt; akin to OE wyrt plant, wort 2 , G Wurzel, L rādīx (see radix ), Gk rhíza (see rhizome ); (v.) ME roten, rooten, deriv. of the n.

Related forms:
rootlike, adjective

Synonyms:
6. basis. 7. beginning, derivation, rise, fountainhead. 8. parent. 21. eradicate.
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root

2  [root, root]
–verb (used without object)
1. to turn up the soil with the snout, as swine.
2. to poke, pry, or search, as if to find something: to root around in a drawer for loose coins.
–verb (used with object)
3. to turn over with the snout (often fol. by up).
4. to unearth; bring to light (often fol. by up).
Origin:
1530–40; var. of obs. wroot (OE wrōtan, akin to wrōt a snout)

root

3  [root or, sometimes, root] ,
–verb (used without object)
1. to encourage a team or contestant by cheering or applauding enthusiastically.
2. to lend moral support: The whole group will be rooting for him.
Origin:
1885–90, Americanism; perh. var. of rout 4

Synonyms:
1. cheer, applaud, boost, support.

Root

  [root] ,
–noun
1. El⋅i⋅hu  [el-uh-hyoo] , 1845–1937, U.S. lawyer and statesman: Nobel peace prize 1912.
2. John Well⋅born  [wel-bern] , 1851–91, U.S. architect.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To root
root 1   (rōōt, rŏŏt)   
n.  

  1. The usually underground portion of a plant that lacks buds, leaves, or nodes and serves as support, draws minerals and water from the surrounding soil, and sometimes stores food.

  2. Any of various other underground plant parts, especially an underground stem such as a rhizome, corm, or tuber.

    1. The embedded part of an organ or structure such as a hair, tooth, or nerve, that serves as a base or support.

    2. A base or support: We snipped the wires at the roots.

    3. The condition of being settled and of belonging to a particular place or society. Often used in the plural: Our roots in this town go back a long way.

    4. roots The state of having or establishing an indigenous relationship with or a personal affinity for a particular culture, society, or environment: music with unmistakable African roots.

    5. The element that carries the main component of meaning in a word and provides the basis from which a word is derived by adding affixes or inflectional endings or by phonetic change.

    6. Such an element reconstructed for a protolanguage. Also called radical.

    7. A number that when multiplied by itself an indicated number of times forms a product equal to a specified number. For example, a fourth root of 4 is √2. Also called nth root.

    8. A number that reduces a polynomial equation in one variable to an identity when it is substituted for the variable.

    9. A number at which a polynomial has the value zero.

    10. The note from which a chord is built.

    11. Such a note occurring as the lowest note of a triad or other chord.

  4. An essential part or element; the basic core: I finally got to the root of the problem.

  5. A primary source; an origin. See Synonyms at origin.

  6. A progenitor or ancestor from which a person or family is descended.

    1. The condition of being settled and of belonging to a particular place or society. Often used in the plural: Our roots in this town go back a long way.

    2. roots The state of having or establishing an indigenous relationship with or a personal affinity for a particular culture, society, or environment: music with unmistakable African roots.

    3. The element that carries the main component of meaning in a word and provides the basis from which a word is derived by adding affixes or inflectional endings or by phonetic change.

    4. Such an element reconstructed for a protolanguage. Also called radical.

    5. A number that when multiplied by itself an indicated number of times forms a product equal to a specified number. For example, a fourth root of 4 is √2. Also called nth root.

    6. A number that reduces a polynomial equation in one variable to an identity when it is substituted for the variable.

    7. A number at which a polynomial has the value zero.

    8. The note from which a chord is built.

    9. Such a note occurring as the lowest note of a triad or other chord.

  8. Linguistics

    1. The element that carries the main component of meaning in a word and provides the basis from which a word is derived by adding affixes or inflectional endings or by phonetic change.

    2. Such an element reconstructed for a protolanguage. Also called radical.

    3. A number that when multiplied by itself an indicated number of times forms a product equal to a specified number. For example, a fourth root of 4 is √2. Also called nth root.

    4. A number that reduces a polynomial equation in one variable to an identity when it is substituted for the variable.

    5. A number at which a polynomial has the value zero.

    6. The note from which a chord is built.

    7. Such a note occurring as the lowest note of a triad or other chord.

  9. Mathematics

    1. A number that when multiplied by itself an indicated number of times forms a product equal to a specified number. For example, a fourth root of 4 is √2. Also called nth root.

    2. A number that reduces a polynomial equation in one variable to an identity when it is substituted for the variable.

    3. A number at which a polynomial has the value zero.

    4. The note from which a chord is built.

    5. Such a note occurring as the lowest note of a triad or other chord.

  10. Music

    1. The note from which a chord is built.

    2. Such a note occurring as the lowest note of a triad or other chord.

v.   root·ed, root·ing, roots

v.   intr.

  1. To grow roots or a root.

  2. To become firmly established, settled, or entrenched.

  3. To come into existence; originate.

v.   tr.

  1. To cause to put out roots and grow.

  2. To implant by or as if by the roots.

  3. To furnish a primary source or origin to.

  4. To remove by or as if by the roots. Often used with up or out: "declared that waste and fraud will be vigorously rooted out of Government" (New York Times).


[Middle English rot, from Old English rōt, from Old Norse; see wrād- in Indo-European roots.]
root'er n.
root 2   (rōōt, rŏŏt)   
v.   root·ed, root·ing, roots

v.   tr.
To dig with or as if with the snout or nose: Even a blind hog can root up an acorn.
v.   intr.

  1. To dig in the earth with or as if with the snout or nose.

  2. To rummage for something: rooted around for a pencil in his cluttered office.


[Middle English wroten, from Old English wrōtan.]
root'er n.
root 3   (rōōt, rŏŏt)   
intr.v.   root·ed, root·ing, roots

  1. To give audible encouragement or applause to a contestant or team; cheer. See Synonyms at applaud.

  2. To lend support to someone or something.


[Possibly alteration of rout3.]
root'er n.
Root   (rōōt)   
American lawyer and public official who served as U.S. secretary of war (1899-1904), secretary of state (1905-1909), and senator from New York (1909-1915). He won the 1912 Nobel Peace Prize.
Root, John Wellborn 1850-1891.  
American architect whose designs include the Monadnock Building (1889-1891) in Chicago, which employed steel beams along with traditional masonry-bearings walls.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Legal Dictionary

Main Entry: root
Pronunciation: 'rüt, 'rut
Function: noun
in the civil law of Louisiana : DESCENDANT—by roots : PER STIRPES
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: root
Pronunciation: 'rüt, 'rut
Function: noun
1 a : the usually underground part of a seed plant body that functions as an organ ofabsorption, aeration, and food storage or as a means of anchorage and support and that differs from a stem especially in lacking nodes, buds, and leaves b : any subterranean plant part(as a true root or a bulb, tuber, rootstock, or other modified stem) especially when fleshy and edible
2 a (1) : the part of a tooth within the socket (2) : any of theprocesses into which the root of a tooth is often divided b : the enlarged basal part of a hair within the skin called also hair root c : the proximal end of anerve; especially : one or more bundles of nerve fibers joining the cranial and spinal nerves with their respective nuclei and columns of gray matter —see DORSAL ROOT, VENTRAL ROOT d : thepart of an organ or physical structure by which it is attached to the body root of the tongue> —root·less /-l&s/ adjective
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

root (r&oomacr;t, r&oobreve;t)
n.

  1. The embedded part of an organ or structure, such as a hair, tooth, or nerve, serving as a base or support.

  2. A primary source; an origin; radix.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Cite This Source
Science Dictionary
root   (rt, rt)  Pronunciation Key 

  1. A plant part that usually grows underground, secures the plant in place, absorbs minerals and water, and stores food manufactured by leaves and other plant parts. Roots grow in a root system. Eudicots and magnoliids have a central, longer, and larger taproot with many narrower lateral roots branching off, while monocots have a mass of threadlike fibrous roots, which are roughly the same length and remain close to the surface of the soil. In vascular plants, roots usually consist of a central cylinder of vascular tissue, surrounded by the pericycle and endodermis, then a thick layer of cortex, and finally an outer epidermis or (in woody plants) periderm. Only finer roots (known as feeder roots) actively take up water and minerals, generally in the uppermost meter of soil. These roots absorb minerals primarily through small epidermal structures known as root hairs. In certain plants, adventitious roots grow out from the stem above ground as aerial roots or prop roots, bending down into the soil, to facilitate the exchange of gases or increase support. Certain plants (such as the carrot and beet) have fleshy storage roots with abundant parenchyma in their vascular tissues. See also fibrous root, taproot.

  2. Any of various other plant parts that grow underground, especially an underground stem such as a corm, rhizome, or tuber.

  3. The part of a tooth that is embedded in the jaw and not covered by enamel.

  4. Mathematics

    1. A number that, when multiplied by itself a given number of times, produces a specified number. For example, since 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 = 16, 2 is a fourth root of 16.

    2. A solution to an equation. For example, a root of the equation x2 - 4 = 0 is 2, since 22 - 4 = 0.


The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Computing Dictionary

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.
[The Jargon File]
(1994-10-27)
2. root directory.
(1996-11-21)
3. root node.
(1998-11-14)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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Idioms & Phrases

root

In addition to the idioms beginning with root, also see put down roots; take root.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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