uproot
The act of uprooting something.
Noun
- The act of uprooting something.
- With the uproot of the Chinese commercial system in the 1890s such a crisis was bound to surface. - 2014, Alexander Claver, Dutch Commerce and Chinese Merchants in Java, page 174:
Origin
PIE word *wréh₂ds 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”).
Forms
Verb Entry 2
- To tear up (a plant, etc.) by the roots, or as if by the roots; to extirpate, to root up.
- 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 the Lord's hand is stretched out, and will not be withdrawn until his nest be turned up, even as the plough uprooteth and scattereth the nest of the field-mouse and the blind mole; […] - 1832, Mrs. S[amuel]...
- [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...
- 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. - 1839, Thomas Miller, chapter VI, in Fair Rosamond; or, The Days of King Henry II. An...
- To destroy (something) utterly; to eradicate, exterminate.
- [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. - 1813, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Canto IX”, in Queen Mab; […],...
- For, having his mind set upon righteousness, and casting away maliciousness, he straightway overthroweth the evil, and uprooteth the sin. - 1871, “[The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.] The Testament of Asher...
- Moreover, Trump’s use of obvious disinformation — the amateurish video he showed Ramaphosa, and his accompanying statements about the “over a thousand” killings of white farmers — to try and make his case has uprooted...
Synonyms: annihilate obliterate destroy aerosolize atomize benothing bewreck blot out blotto dash decompose demolish desolate devastate diffuse disintegrate disperse dissolve eliminate eradicate erase exterminate extinguish extirpate
- To remove (someone or something) from a familiar circumstance, especially suddenly and unwillingly.
- [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...
- 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,...
- Of oneself or someone: to move away from a familiar environment (for example, to live elsewhere).
Forms
Derived
Verb Entry 3
- 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.
Origin
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.