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

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

"When young girls and non-binary kids see themselves on those stages they'll know those stages are for them, and that's when true equality in music will start to take root."

From BBC • Nov. 8, 2025

Support from the U.S. government and multilateral financial institutions such as the Inter-American Development Bank helped the industry take root.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 1, 2025

He said he agrees with the Tachi Yokut Tribe that restoring part of the lake would improve life in the valley and allow its original ecosystem to take root again.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 3, 2025

She looked at the mountain and the meadow and the gorge, and I felt her feet squeeze into the earth and take root.

From "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George

Related Words

• burgeon
• germinate
• grow