rootless
[root-lis, roo t-]
- having no roots.
- having no basis of stability; unsteady: a rootless feeling resulting from economic and social change.
- having no place or position in society; not in accord with the environment: the homeless, rootless wanderer.
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Origin of rootless
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
shakyunstablewobblyfrailunreliableimmaturevulnerablerockynervousinsecureweakprecariousunsettledjitteryricketyunsteadyskepticalunclearuncertainhesitantExamples from the Web for rootless
Contemporary Examples
She is rootless and stateless, having little in the way of rights or protection from exploitation.
They are living a rootless existence in 6th of October City, the satellite settlement now home to thousands of civil-war refugees.
Desperate to Go to War, Syrians in Egypt Find an Ally to HelpAlastair Beach, Abdulhamid Mallas
May 3, 2013
Historical Examples
Without that rootless, worthless, devilish fancy, I might have been no worse than other people!
Salted With FireGeorge MacDonald
Surface-work not being in vogue, nor rootless blossoms regarded.
Man of Uz, and Other PoemsLydia Howard Sigourney
In "Ceugant" there is only the Unknowable, the rootless Root.
ReincarnationTh. Pascal
In all cases the first upper incisors are large and rootless.
Such teeth are said to be rootless or to have persistent pulps.
The Vertebrate SkeletonSidney H. Reynolds
rootless
- having no roots, esp (of a person) having no ties with a particular place or community
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for rootless
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper