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root-and-branch

adjective

  1. on a large scale or without discrimination; wholesale

    root-and-branch reforms

“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


adverb

  1. entirely; completely; utterly

    Brazil needs reform root and branch

“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Idioms and Phrases

Utterly, completely, as in The company has been transformed root and branch by the new management . Alluding to both the underground and aboveground parts of a tree, this idiom was first recorded in 1640.
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Example Sentences

And it begins with the root-and-branch rejection of Abraham Lincoln.

He had a bold, forward-looking mind, and was in favour of root-and-branch changes.

Thenceforward it was tacitly agreed between them that all root-and-branch criticism of Kitty and her ways was taboo.

Thus the would-be root-and-branch reforms found themselves in a dilemma.

Reform is impossible; therefore let there be root-and-branch revolution.

If you go in for root-and-branch efforts, you will get root-and-branch results.

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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.

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