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• root-and-branch
  root-and-branch

  adjective

  on a large scale or without discrimination; wholesale
• root and branch
  root and branch

  Utterly, completely, as in The company has been transformed root and branch by the new management. Alluding to both the underground and aboveground parts of a tree, this idiom was first recorded in 1640.

root-and-branch

British  

adjective

1. on a large scale or without discrimination; wholesale

   root-and-branch reforms

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adverb

1. entirely; completely; utterly

   Brazil needs reform root and branch

root and branch Idioms  

1. Utterly, completely, as in The company has been transformed root and branch by the new management. Alluding to both the underground and aboveground parts of a tree, this idiom was first recorded in 1640.

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Example Sentences

The CCRC's senior leadership, starting with the CEO, must also resign to pave the way for root-and-branch reform.

From BBC • Jan. 14, 2025

And because of its hallowed status as a national treasure, any efforts at root-and-branch change quickly run up against political resistance.

From New York Times • Jul. 16, 2023

But the Tribunal ruled on Monday that Lovdahl Gormsen's methodology of establishing any losses suffered by Facebook users needed "root-and-branch re-evaluation" for the case to continue.

From Reuters • Feb. 20, 2023

He was also shrewd enough to understand that there needed to be root-and-branch reform of the Communist Party itself if his economic reforms were to succeed.

From BBC • Aug. 30, 2022

He held that Carthage must be destroyed; and, in spite of his Parisian marriage, was the foremost advocate of the root-and-branch policy.

From Montcalm and Wolfe by Parkman, Francis