uproot
Americanverb (used with object)
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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)
verb
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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
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to remove or destroy utterly
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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have uprootedperfect
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has uprootedperfect 3rd person singular
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have been uprootingperfect progressive
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are uprootingprogressive
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is uprootingprogressive 3rd person singular
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uprootingparticiple
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uprootssingular 3rd person
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am uprootingprogressive 1st person singular
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has been uprootingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
Past
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had uprootedperfect
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uprootedsimple
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was uprootingprogressive singular
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had been uprootingperfect progressive
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uprootedparticiple
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were uprootingprogressive plural
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
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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.
“This is how we turn the tide in our culture: Uproot the evil and plant seeds of truth, goodness, and beauty,” Mr. Cameron said.
From Washington Times • Nov. 16, 2023
After more than 15 years of touring, writing his Mudd Up blog and digitally-enhanced globe-trotting, Clayton has published his first book, Uproot: Travels in 21st-Century Music and Digital Culture.
From The Guardian • Sep. 1, 2016
“It slowly dawned on me,” Clayton writes in Uproot, “that the music that got lauded within Morocco had virtually no overlap with the stuff successfully presented outside its borders.”
From The Guardian • Sep. 1, 2016
As for sweets, the light banana tempura and the pineapple cheesecake were in keeping with the calibrated balance of Uproot, but best and most decadent were the house-made ice creams and sorbets.
From New York Times • Jul. 9, 2010
Uproot Time's tangled grasses - Live over the march, and the fight.
From Poems of Cheer by Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
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.
