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.]
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."
Shak.
The Lord rooted them out of their land . . . and cast them
into another land.
Deut. xxix. 28.
Root (r&oomac;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.
In deep grounds the weeds root deeper.
Mortimer.
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.
Bp. Fell.
Root , n. [Icel. rōt (for
vrōt); 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.
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.
Locke. (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.
The love of money is a root of all
kinds of evil.
1
Tim. vi. 10 (rev. Ver.) (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.
(f) The lowest place, position, or part. "Deep to the
roots of hell."
Milton. "The roots of the mountains."
Southey.
4. (Astrol.) The time which to reckon in making calculations.
When a root is of
a birth yknowe [known].
Chaucer. Aërial 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
(Zoöl.), 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 (Zoöl.),
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.
Root , v. t. To turn up or to dig out with the snout; as, the
swine roots the earth.
Root (?), v. i. [AS. wrōtan; akin to wrōt a snout, trunk, D. wroeten to root, G. rüssel snout, trunk, proboscis, Icel.
rōta 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.
2. Hence, to seek for favor or advancement by low arts or groveling servility; to fawn servilely.
Hear it pronounced