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Synonyms

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]

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.

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

Efforts to encourage investing in Japan, where many have long kept a big chunk of their wealth in deposit accounts, have been slow to take root.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 10, 2025

In a feebler, curious state, falsehoods can take root while truth slips through our hands, and vice versa.

From Salon • Jun. 7, 2025

Neither he nor his mother realizes it, but this kernel of an idea will take root.

From "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario

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.