uproot
Americanverb (used with object)
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to pull out by or as if by the roots: root.
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: root.
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
- uprootedness noun
- uprooter noun
Etymology
Origin of uproot
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.
As seasoned journalists, Brent and I had spent recent years documenting displacement — migrants crossing rivers in Central America, refugees moving through camps in Greece, families uprooted by hurricanes and conflict across the Americas.
From Los Angeles Times
The hair-whipping, chest-thumping church founder uprooted her polarizing sect from Manchester, England, to Manhattan before fleeing farther still into the countryside.
From Los Angeles Times
The storms uprooted trees, downed power lines, damaged buildings and ripped the roofs off some houses on Friday.
From BBC
Her grandma immigrated to Britain in the 1950s, and she says that being uprooted and starting again was something that she never got over.
From Literature
Fearing for his life, he had escaped Syria after his family was uprooted again and again by fighting.
From Barron's
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.
