uproot
Americanverb (used with object)
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to pull out by or as if by the roots.
The hurricane uprooted many trees and telephone poles.
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to remove violently or tear away from a native place or environment.
The industrial revolution uprooted large segments of the rural population.
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to destroy or eradicate as if by pulling out roots.
The conquerors uprooted many of the Native traditions.
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to displace, as from a home or country; tear away, as from customs or a way of life.
to uproot a people.
verb (used without object)
verb
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to pull up by or as if by the roots
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to displace (a person or persons) from native or habitual surroundings
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to remove or destroy utterly
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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uprootsimple
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uprootssimple
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have uprootedperfect
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has uprootedperfect
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am uprootingprogressive
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are uprootingprogressive
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is uprootingprogressive
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have been uprootingperfect progressive
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has been uprootingperfect progressive
Past
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uprootedsimple
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had uprootedperfect
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was uprootingprogressive
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were uprootingprogressive
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had been uprootingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of uproot
Explanation
When you uproot people, you move them from one place to a completely new one. Your parents may need to uproot you if your mom gets a new job all the way across the country. One meaning of the verb uproot is "move," especially when a person is forced to move. Another way to use uproot is more literal: to pull a plant out of the ground, roots and all. You might, for example, uproot your favorite rose bush and replant it in a sunnier spot in your garden. Interestingly, the figurative sense of uproot is about a hundred years older than the literal meaning, which was first used in the late 1600's.
Vocabulary lists containing uproot
Outcasts United
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Purple Hibiscus
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Between Shades of Gray
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“We will uproot your tent!” some of them said, according to Khim Lal Gautam, a Nepal government officer in charge of monitoring mountaineering activities at the base camp.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
To work for peace is to uproot war from ourselves and from the hearts of men and women.
From Salon ● Feb. 13, 2026
Efforts to help the crisis-hit industry include the government's latest 130-million-euro "arrachage" fund that opened last Friday, offering subsidies to loss-making owners to uproot their vines.
From Barron's ● Feb. 10, 2026
Batty did not uproot during his time at Blackburn, or even when he made the switch to Newcastle in 1996.
From BBC ● Jan. 7, 2026
What makes them uproot and leave everything they’ve known for a great unknown beyond the horizon?
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
Owners say they are easy to carry and set up and are safer than umbrellas, which can cause injuries or death when the wind uproots them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 23, 2026
It definitely is a very important topic, and something that needs to be addressed in a way that uproots all of it.
From The Verge ● Mar. 29, 2022
Waterwell’s version uproots it to Connecticut, but without any real feeling of place or circumstance.
From New York Times ● Mar. 28, 2022
But Kong isn’t playful today; he uproots a tree, fashions it into a spear and flings it angrily into the sky.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 29, 2021
The animal which tears and devours its prey is no worse than the swollen stream, that uproots the trees in its course.
From A Review of the Systems of Ethics Founded on the Theory of Evolution by Williams, C. M.
Super Typhoon Sinlaku, which hit the region in mid-April, knocked out power for tens of thousands of inhabitants, uprooted trees, overturned cars and ripped metal roofs off buildings.
From Barron's ● Jul. 5, 2026
Campaigning for a second term, Mr. Trump became fully uprooted.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 31, 2026
At least three former colleagues of mine have uprooted their families, changed jobs and moved overseas within the last few years.
From Salon ● May 31, 2026
When Tammy Hine uprooted her entire life and moved to the UK's most remote inhabited island, she may have misjudged her wardrobe choices.
From BBC ● Apr. 4, 2026
Her grandma immigrated to Britain in the 1950s, and she says that being uprooted and starting again was something that she never got over.
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
More than a million people displaced from the south face an "uprooting... with terrible repercussions," she said.
From Barron's ● May 22, 2026
Ours is an age not only of cultural backsliding but also of people uprooting themselves for the sake of safety and reinvention.
From Salon ● May 20, 2026
Remaining in an existing home has powerful appeal compared with uprooting one’s life and relocating to somewhere new and unfamiliar.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 15, 2026
How Maria handles her imminent uprooting is at the core of Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Touzani’s third feature, her follow-up to the similarly sensitive family drama “The Blue Caftan.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2026
I felt like a tornado, indiscriminately uprooting things and yanking them into my path.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
