Definition of "uproot"

(transitive)

1. To tear up (a plant, etc.) by the roots, or as if by the roots; to extirpate, to root up.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Mark me! the Lord's hand is stretched out, and will not be withdrawn until his nest be turned up, even as the plough uprooteth and scattereth the nest of the field-mouse and the blind mole; […]

     1832, Mrs. S[amuel] C[arter] Hall [i.e., Anna Maria Hall], chapter XIV, in The Buccaneer. A Tale. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […] (late Colburn and Bentley), pages 272–273

   • [S]he and Mr. Joseph Tuggs, and Miss Charlotta Tuggs, and Mr. Cymon Tuggs, with their eight feet in a corresponding number of yellow shoes, seated themselves on four rush-bottomed chairs, which, being placed in a soft part of the sand, forthwith sunk down some two feet and a half. […] Mr. Cymon, by an exertion of great personal strength, uprooted the chairs, and removed them further back.

     1839, “Boz” [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], “The Tuggs’s at Ramsgate”, in Sketches by “Boz” Illustrative of Every-day Life, and Every-day People. […], new edition, London: Chapman and Hall, […], page 327

   • Thou shakest the earth with the thunder of thy terror, and uprootest the huge oaks on the highest hills with the echo of thy voice.

     1839, Thomas Miller, chapter VI, in Fair Rosamond; or, The Days of King Henry II. An Historical Romance; […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], page 106

   • [T]hee only have I loved—for thee only have I bloomed; and when thou uprootest me from thy garden, I must wither and die.

     1841 December, “The Unicorn. From the German of the Author of ‘Der Frieschutz.’”, in F. Johnston, transl., The New Monthly Belle Assemblée; a Magazine of Literature and Fashion, […], volume XV, London: […] Joseph Rogerson, page 354, column 2

   • See now what doubt is. It is evil, and unwise, and uprooteth many from the faith; yea, though they be very strong.

     1870, “The Ninth Commandment. On Prayer.”, in Charles H[olland] Hoole, transl., The Shepherd of Hermas […], London, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Rivingtons, page 64

2. (figuratively) To destroy (something) utterly; to eradicate, exterminate.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • [B]ravely bearing on, thy will / Is destined an eternal war to wage / With tyranny and falshood, and uproot / The germs of misery from the human heart.

     1813, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Canto IX”, in Queen Mab; […], London: […] P. B. Shelley, […], page 120

   • For, having his mind set upon righteousness, and casting away maliciousness, he straightway overthroweth the evil, and uprooteth the sin.

     1871, “[The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.] The Testament of Asher Concerning Two Faces of Vice and Virtue.”, in Robert Sinker, transl., edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and Fragments of the Second and Third Centuries (Ante-Nicene Christian Library: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325; XXII), Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, […], page 62

3. (figuratively) To remove (someone or something) from a familiar circumstance, especially suddenly and unwillingly.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • [H]ave ye a Sultan who ruleth over you and is tyrannical in his rule and under whose hand you are; one who, if any of you commit an offence, taketh his goods and ruineth him and who, whenas he will, turneth you out of house and home and uprooteth you, stock and branch?

     1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “The Pilgrim Man and the Old Woman”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume V, [London]: […] Burton Club […], page 187

   • The Anglification of Scotland has been proceeding apace to the damage of its education, its music, its literature, its genius, and the generation that is growing up under this influence is uprooted from its past, and, being deprived of the inspiration of its nationality, is also deprived of its communal sense.

     1921, J[ames] Ramsay MacDonald, “Political Construction”, in Socialism: Critical and Constructive, London, New York, N.Y.: Cassell and Company, page 249

(intransitive, reflexive) Of oneself or someone: to move away from a familiar environment (for example, to live elsewhere).  examples

The act of uprooting something.  quotations  examples

(transitive) Of a pig or other animal: to dig up (something in the ground) using the snout; to rummage for (something) in the ground; to grub up, to root, to rout.  examples