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.
To work for peace is to uproot war from ourselves and from the hearts of men and women.
From Salon • Feb. 13, 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
An estimated 75,000—some 2.5% of the population—had no desire to live within an independent republic that held memories of “terror, disillusion, and death,” preferring to uproot themselves to Canada and beyond.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 9, 2026
Chelsea respect Sterling's position and are understanding of his reluctance to uproot his family for the second time three years.
From BBC • Sep. 5, 2025
The storm that raged in him tonight could not uproot this hatred, the mightiest tree in all John’s country, all that remained tonight, in this, John’s floodtime.
From "Go Tell It on the Mountain" by James Baldwin
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.
