(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
<noun.plant>
the place where something begins, where it springs into being
<noun.location> 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
(linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are removed
<noun.communication> thematic vowels are part of the stem
a number that, when multiplied by itself some number of times, equals a given number
<noun.quantity>
the set of values that give a true statement when substituted into an equation
<noun.group>
someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent)
<noun.person>
a simple form inferred as the common basis from which related words in several languages can be derived by linguistic processes
<noun.communication>
the part of a tooth that is embedded in the jaw and serves as support
<noun.body> [ verb ]
take root and begin to grow
<verb.change> this plant roots quickly
come into existence, originate
<verb.stative> The problem roots in her depression
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.]
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.
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 \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 \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.
2. Hence, to seek for favor or advancement by low arts or groveling servility; to fawn servilely.
Root \Root\, v. t. To turn up or to dig out with the snout; as, the swine roots the earth.
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.
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.
{A["e]rial 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} (Zo["o]l.), 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} (Zo["o]l.), 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.
"We have done extensive testing in attempts to identify any common design flaw that would be a root cause" for sudden acceleration, the spokesman said.
This manure contains nitrogen, which is transmitted through the soil and the root system of the barley to the grain. But this year, for some unaccountable reason, our barleys contained much lower percentages of nitrogen than usual.
The 1- by 3-inch video camera is guided down clear plastic tubes inserted in the bean rows and used to record root growth from a few inches to more than 3 feet below the surface.
On the root cause of homelessness, 45 percent said society mainly is at fault and 33 percent said the homeless themselves are chiefly to blame.
"With all this moisture and coolness and poor germination, you get shallow root development," said Richard Loewy, president of AgResource Co., Chicago.
For once an electorate has it in its head that an administration is exhausted, devoid of new ideas, at the end of its natural life the view that it is time for a change begins to take deep root.
Nick off any excess root, leaving enough to hold the layers together. Steam the fennel for 5-7 minutes.
"You go in through the skin on the back of the finger and peel out the cyst," she said. "Then you follow the stalk back to the joint." The stalk, or root, of the cyst must be removed or the growth could recur.
Ward believes crack cocaine is at the root of all the violence and gang battles plaguing southeast San Francisco and other urban areas.
Some observers say ambition and personality differences are the root of Buthelezi's conflict with other black groups.
A curious porker approached her from behind, bent its head toward the sleeping dog, and administered a healthy root.
Both sides say politics was at the root of the case, which was to go to trial Monday.
"It makes a difference to the INS," he said. "The Number 1 thing is to root out corruption in government.
The report, released yesterday, disputes the idea that the declining international competitiveness of U.S. industry is at the root of the nation's enormous trade deficits.
I think the root of the matter all comes back to a hatred of God, to a rejection of the entire concept of a religious system," Quayle said.
An undifferentiated gasoline levy is probably as close as we'd get, though revenue should be earmarked for related military policing and barred from application to the "root causes" of any ill, anywhere.
Brutus expected as much and noted two root causes.
Bush's cyst is a quarter-inch in diameter and rises about an eighth of an inch above the surface of the finger, with a root that extends under the skin back toward the finger joint, said White House aide Stephen Hart.
"We're saying that to merely shut down a telemarketing boiler room is like picking dandelions: Without going after the root system, the problem will spring up again," Mr. Cutler said.
It is difficult to transplant and should be obtained in pots, from which it can be planted out without root disturbance.
Crops such as corn develop a shallow root system when water is plentiful on the surface in the spring.
The unexpected decline sent the pound sharply higher yesterday and raised hopes that recovery is taking root. The number of people out of work and claiming benefit fell by a seasonally adjusted 22,000 in February.
When legislatures seek to root out an entrenched problem, the rule goes, courts countermand that intent if they interpret the statute so narrowly as to leave the problem intact.
Some root for the peasant fighters but complain about the comfortable life styles of the leadership and the rumors of widespread corruption.
The initiative to do something took root after a disastrous flood in 1966 and the cry of "Save Venice" went up.
It's unorthodox with a root crop, but it worked for me.
The root of the book's trouble is that for all his ventures and adventures, Todd is not much of a character.
Indeed, filial piety was seen as the root of all virtue by Confucius, whose teachings more than 2,000 years ago provided the foundation for Chinese moral standards.
"How in the world can anybody root for Cleveland?" he says, sitting in a nearby bar watching the New England Patriots one recent Sunday.
"The root cause of the inflation problem must be seen in the rapidly rising government budget deficits," which were partly financed by the central bank, the report said.