uproot

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌʌpˈɹuːt/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌʌpˈɹut/
• Rhymes: -uːt
• Hyphenation: up‧root

Etymology 1

From up- (prefix indicating a higher direction or position) +‎ root (“to tear up by the roots; (figuratively) to remove forcibly from a place; to eradicate, exterminate”, verb). Root is derived from root (“underground part of a plant”, noun), from Middle English rote, from Old English rōt, rōte, from Old Norse rót, from Proto-Germanic *wrōts, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wréh₂ds (“root”).

Verb

uproot (third-person singular simple present uproots, present participle uprooting, simple past and past participle uprooted)

1. (transitive)
   1. To tear up (a plant, etc.) by the roots, or as if by the roots; to extirpate, to root up.

      Synonyms: deracinate, disroot, grub up, outroot, rout, unroot

      • 1832, Mrs. S[amuel] C[arter] Hall [i.e., Anna Maria Hall], chapter XIV, in The Buccaneer. A Tale. , volume III, London: Richard Bentley, (late Colburn and Bentley), →OCLC, pages 272–273:

        Mark me! the Lord's hand is stretched out, and will not be withdrawn until his nest be turned up, even as the plough uprooteth and scattereth the nest of the field-mouse and the blind mole; […]

      • 1839, “Boz” [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], “The Tuggs’s at Ramsgate”, in Sketches by “Boz” Illustrative of Every-day Life, and Every-day People. , new edition, London: Chapman and Hall, , →OCLC, page 327:

        [S]he and Mr. Joseph Tuggs, and Miss Charlotta Tuggs, and Mr. Cymon Tuggs, with their eight feet in a corresponding number of yellow shoes, seated themselves on four rush-bottomed chairs, which, being placed in a soft part of the sand, forthwith sunk down some two feet and a half. […] Mr. Cymon, by an exertion of great personal strength, uprooted the chairs, and removed them further back.

      • 1839, Thomas Miller, chapter VI, in Fair Rosamond; or, The Days of King Henry II. An Historical Romance; , volume II, London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC, page 106:

        Thou shakest the earth with the thunder of thy terror, and uprootest the huge oaks on the highest hills with the echo of thy voice.

      • 1841 December, “The Unicorn. From the German of the Author of ‘Der Frieschutz.’”, in F. Johnston, transl., The New Monthly Belle Assemblée; a Magazine of Literature and Fashion, , volume XV, London: Joseph Rogerson, →OCLC, page 354, column 2:

        [T]hee only have I loved—for thee only have I bloomed; and when thou uprootest me from thy garden, I must wither and die.

      • 1870, “The Ninth Commandment. On Prayer.”, in Charles H Hoole, transl., The Shepherd of Hermas , London, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Rivingtons, →OCLC, page 64:

        See now what doubt is. It is evil, and unwise, and uprooteth many from the faith; yea, though they be very strong.

   2. (figuratively) To destroy (something) utterly; to eradicate, exterminate.

      Synonyms: annihilate, obliterate; see also Thesaurus:destroy

      • 1813, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Canto IX”, in Queen Mab; , London: P. B. Shelley, , →OCLC, page 120:

        [B]ravely bearing on, thy will / Is destined an eternal war to wage / With tyranny and falshood, and uproot / The germs of misery from the human heart.

      • 1871, “[The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.] The Testament of Asher Concerning Two Faces of Vice and Virtue.”, in Robert Sinker, transl., edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and Fragments of the Second and Third Centuries (Ante-Nicene Christian Library: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325; XXII), Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, , →OCLC, page 62:

        For, having his mind set upon righteousness, and casting away maliciousness, he straightway overthroweth the evil, and uprooteth the sin.

   3. (figuratively) To remove (someone or something) from a familiar circumstance, especially suddenly and unwillingly.
      • 1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “The Pilgrim Man and the Old Woman”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night , Shammar edition, volume V, : Burton Club , →OCLC, page 187:

        [H]ave ye a Sultan who ruleth over you and is tyrannical in his rule and under whose hand you are; one who, if any of you commit an offence, taketh his goods and ruineth him and who, whenas he will, turneth you out of house and home and uprooteth you, stock and branch?

      • 1921, J[ames] Ramsay MacDonald, “Political Construction”, in Socialism: Critical and Constructive, London, New York, N.Y.: Cassell and Company, →OCLC, page 249:

        The Anglification of Scotland has been proceeding apace to the damage of its education, its music, its literature, its genius, and the generation that is growing up under this influence is uprooted from its past, and, being deprived of the inspiration of its nationality, is also deprived of its communal sense.

2. (intransitive, reflexive) Of oneself or someone: to move away from a familiar environment (for example, to live elsewhere).

Derived terms

• uprootal
• uprooted (adjective)
• uprootedness
• uprooter
• uprooting (noun)

Translations

Noun

uproot (plural uproots)

1. The act of uprooting something.
   • 2014, Alexander Claver, Dutch Commerce and Chinese Merchants in Java, page 174:

     With the uproot of the Chinese commercial system in the 1890s such a crisis was bound to surface.

Etymology 2

From up- (prefix indicating a higher direction or position) +‎ root (“of a pig or other animal: to dig or turn up with the snout; to search as if by digging in soil, rummage”, verb). Root is derived from Middle English wroten (“to dig or turn up with the snout; to remove soil, dig up”), from Old English wrōtan (“to dig or turn up with the snout”), from Proto-Germanic *wrōtaną (“to dig or turn up with the snout”); further etymology uncertain.

Verb

uproot (third-person singular simple present uproots, present participle uprooting, simple past and past participle uprooted)

1. (transitive) Of a pig or other animal: to dig up (something in the ground) using the snout; to rummage for (something) in the ground; to grub up, to root, to rout.

Translations

References

Anagrams

• root up