take root

Idioms  

1. Become established or fixed, as in We're not sure how the movement took root, but it did so very rapidly. This idiom transfers the establishment of a plant, whose roots settle into the earth, to other matters. [Late 1500s]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

take root

"That ultimately creates a kind of fertile ground where many good ideas can take root," he told AFP.

From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026

A short walk along an irrigation canal leads to a weathered observation deck rising two stories above a patchwork of saturated flats where saltgrass, iodine bush and cattail take root.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2026

It would take years, economists and business leaders say, to reorient global patterns of trade that took decades to take root.

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 19, 2026

Great crime fiction can take root almost anywhere—in a rock-strewn wilderness, a London legal sanctuary, or a swanky Manhattan apartment tower.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025

“If you take each problem a step at a time,” he continues, “you’ll grow the answer organically. The process will take root in your brain. This is true learning.”

From "The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl" by Stacy McAnulty

Related Words

• burgeon
• germinate
• grow