root-and-branch
adjective
on a large scale or without discrimination; wholesale
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root-and-branch
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root and branch
root and branchUtterly, 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
Britishadjective
adverb
root and branch
Idioms
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.
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The author ties his root-and-branch critique of capitalism to a plea to “make modern life much more affordable than it is at present,” which he hopes will open more opportunities for enlightened leisure.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
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 this is the first time he’s dug root-and-branch into a decades-old genre he’d only glanced at before.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2022
Aye, they will make root-and-branch work, I warrant them.'
From Waverley: or, 'Tis sixty years since by Sir Walter Scott
Tory shadow finance minister Peter Fox also called for a "root and branch review so that taxpayers' money is well-spent and efficiently allocated".
From BBC ● Dec. 9, 2024
Not at his attempts to wreak personal vengeance, reconstitute Washington root and branch, or engineer a lasting partisan realignment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2024
He added that he had launched a commission to lead a "root and branch review of the entire water sector to put right what's gone so badly wrong".
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2024
The chief executive of St Catherine’s Hospice, which operates in West Sussex and Surrey, said funding of the sector needed an urgent root and branch review.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2024
He had decided not to truckle with Might any more—to cut it out root and branch, by establishing another standard altogether.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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.
