Nor, when they [the Skinners and Cow Boys] wrung the neck of a
rooster, did they trouble their heads whether he crowed for
Congress or King George.
W. Irving.
Root (?), v. i. [AS. wrtan; akin to wrt a snout, trunk, D. wroeten to
root, G. rüssel snout, trunk, proboscis, Icel. rta 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, v. t. To turn up or to dig out with the snout; as, the swine
roots the earth.
Root, n. [Icel. rt (for vrt); 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.
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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.