uproot
Americanverb (used with object)
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uproots,
present (3rd person singular)
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uprooted,
past participle, past
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uprooting
present participle
-
to pull out by or as if by the roots.
The hurricane uprooted many trees and telephone poles.
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to remove violently or tear away from a native place or environment.
The industrial revolution uprooted large segments of the rural population.
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to destroy or eradicate as if by pulling out roots.
The conquerors uprooted many of the Native traditions.
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to displace, as from a home or country; tear away, as from customs or a way of life.
to uproot a people.
verb (used without object)
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uproots,
present (3rd person singular)
-
uprooted,
past participle, past
-
uprooting
present participle
verb
-
to pull up by or as if by the roots
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to displace (a person or persons) from native or habitual surroundings
-
to remove or destroy utterly
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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uprootsimple
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uprootssimple
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have uprootedperfect
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has uprootedperfect
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am uprootingprogressive
-
are uprootingprogressive
-
is uprootingprogressive
-
have been uprootingperfect progressive
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has been uprootingperfect progressive
Past
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uprootedsimple
-
had uprootedperfect
-
was uprootingprogressive
-
were uprootingprogressive
-
had been uprootingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of uproot
Explanation
When you uproot people, you move them from one place to a completely new one. Your parents may need to uproot you if your mom gets a new job all the way across the country. One meaning of the verb uproot is "move," especially when a person is forced to move. Another way to use uproot is more literal: to pull a plant out of the ground, roots and all. You might, for example, uproot your favorite rose bush and replant it in a sunnier spot in your garden. Interestingly, the figurative sense of uproot is about a hundred years older than the literal meaning, which was first used in the late 1600's.
Vocabulary lists containing uproot
Outcasts United
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Purple Hibiscus
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Between Shades of Gray
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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.
See Examples For:
Some 180 applications were received for the role of physiologist alone, with Rachel McCormick willing to uproot her life from Australia to take the job.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
Forests, he reasoned, don’t uproot and storm castles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
Once a false image takes hold, it is nearly impossible to uproot, and the flood of fabricated content has a corrosive effect: It makes us doubt everything.
From Salon ● May 24, 2026
Efforts to help the crisis-hit industry include the government's latest 130-million-euro "arrachage" fund that opened last Friday, offering subsidies to loss-making owners to uproot their vines.
From Barron's ● Feb. 10, 2026
“But Hitler won’t uproot us,” said the man.
From "Between Shades of Gray" by Ruta Sepetys
Owners say they are easy to carry and set up and are safer than umbrellas, which can cause injuries or death when the wind uproots them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 23, 2026
It definitely is a very important topic, and something that needs to be addressed in a way that uproots all of it.
From The Verge ● Mar. 29, 2022
Mara, a 37-year-old grieving from the loss of her child during a stillbirth, uproots her life and moves to a seaside town, where she works at a wine shop and slowly learns to heal.
From New York Times ● Jan. 14, 2022
In her 1910 autobiography, she wrote of the Santa Ana wind that “its breath dries up the plants, gives headaches to people, and prostrates them … it uproots trees, tears off roofs, and devastates fields.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2021
What the Buddhist overlooks is that the uprooting and destruction of the self-regarding desires results, not in the annihilation, but in the purification and enhanced vitality, of the self that uproots them.
From An Introduction to the Study of Comparative Religion by F. B. (Frank Byron) Jevons
On its 53-mile path to the Pacific Ocean, water ripped through orchards, uprooted orange groves and flipped cars.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
He uprooted the green bushes on his small farm in a remote corner of the province of Meta in Colombia, reachable only by river, and replaced them with legal crops like cassava and plantain.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
Super Typhoon Sinlaku, which hit the region in mid-April, knocked out power for tens of thousands of inhabitants, uprooted trees, overturned cars and ripped metal roofs off buildings.
From Barron's ● Jul. 5, 2026
Campaigning for a second term, Mr. Trump became fully uprooted.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 31, 2026
“Is that cyclone why the woods around here are full of uprooted pine stumps?” the Methodist preacher said finally.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
“The uprooting of the human being was a declared program.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
That sustained progress over recent seasons has come since she made another significant decision, uprooting her life to the north Italian city of Padua to be coached by Marco Airale.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
His elderly parents and children remain in Russia and he dreads uprooting his family.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
Ours is an age not only of cultural backsliding but also of people uprooting themselves for the sake of safety and reinvention.
From Salon ● May 20, 2026
In its fury, the bear was clawing at the mouth of the cave, uprooting the yew and tearing it apart.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
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.
