rooted

1. 1
   adjectivefiguratively

   Having something as its origin or underlying basis.

   Like a building whose strength comes from foundations laid far underground.

   Many of their customs are deeply rooted in local history.

   His optimism was rooted in a lifetime of small victories.

   Similargrounded, based, founded, anchored, embedded

   Note

   This sense is almost always followed by in, which names the ground something grows from: rooted in history, rooted in the gospel, rooted in an ideal of Christian charity. It is gradable, and comparisons come readily, often with far and a than clause, as in more rooted in Westtown than St. Paul's. The in phrase is not optional here; without it the reader hears a different sense.

2. 2
   adjective

   Fixed firmly in one position; immobile and unable to move.

   The hikers stood rooted to the trail as the deer crossed in front of them.

   Frozen with shock, she remained rooted where she stood.

   Similarfrozen, transfixed, motionless, immobile

   Note

   Here a plant's stillness is borrowed for a person held motionless, often by shock or fear. The fixed phrases are rooted to the spot and rooted in place: to goes with the spot, in with the place. Sports writing stretches it to a team stuck in the standings. Michael Da Silva's 2011 BBC Sport report has Bolton rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table.

3. 3
   adjective

   Having roots, or roots of a particular kind.

   Deeply rooted shrubs survive drought far better than shallow ones.

   These weeds are so firmly rooted that pulling them is nearly hopeless.

   Similarestablished, anchored, embedded

   Note

   The literal, botanical sense, and the one the figurative meanings grow from. It is most at home in compounds that say what kind of roots a plant has. Deep-rooted is the model, hyphenated before a noun (a deep-rooted shrub). The figure is easy to follow from soil to mind in the 'ingrained' meaning.

4. 4
   adjectivefiguratively

   Firmly fixed through repeated use; deeply established, habitual, or instinctive.

   Prejudice can become rooted over many generations.

   His distrust of strangers was so rooted that no reassurance helped.

   Similaringrained, deep-seated, established, embedded, inveterate

   Oppositesuperficial

   Note

   Habits and prejudices are what this sense usually attaches to, and it compares freely. The London Magazine of 1782 has most rooted prejudices, and Anthony Hyman's Charles Babbage (1985) has the most rooted habits of suspicion. It keeps company with entrenched and ingrained. It stands before its noun or after become, with no following in phrase. That phrase is the mark of the 'based on' meaning.

5. 5
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of root.

   The pigs rooted in the soft mud for hours.

   She has always rooted for the underdog.

   Note

   One spelling serves as the past of several unrelated verbs. Cuttings are rooted, pigs rooted in the mud with their snouts, a hacker has rooted a phone, and a flatterer rooted for advancement. Only context tells them apart. The hacker's participle is the same word as the computing adjective.

6. 6
   adjectiveslangAustraliaNew Zealand

   Broken, damaged, or no longer working.

   The washing machine's rooted, so we'll have to buy a new one.

   After the storm the back fence was completely rooted.

   Similarbroken, stuffed, wrecked, busted, kaput

   Oppositeworking

   Note

   Australian and New Zealand slang for a machine or object that has given up. "My car's rooted" means it is going nowhere without a mechanic. The 'in trouble' meaning falls on people, while this one falls on things. Like most slang it stays out of careful writing. Outside Australia and New Zealand it may simply puzzle a listener.

7. 7
   adjectiveslang

   In serious trouble or difficulty; done for.

   If the boss finds out about this, we're absolutely rooted.

   The business was rooted once its main client walked away.

   Similarstuffed, screwed, done, finished, doomed

   Note

   Slang for being done for. Keep it to company where screwed would also pass. It is usually intensified, and absolutely rooted is the natural phrase. It falls on a person facing consequences, as in "you're rooted if anyone finds out." For a thing that has stopped working, the word shifts to the 'broken' meaning.

8. 8
   adjective

   Having a single designated node marked as the root, as in a tree or graph.

   A rooted tree designates one vertex as its starting point.

   Algorithms on rooted graphs traverse outward from the chosen root.

   Oppositeunrooted

   Note

   Choosing the root is what turns a plain tree into a hierarchy. Once one vertex is singled out, every other vertex gains a parent, and parent–child relationships run through the whole structure. A graph theorist describes a tree as rooted at the chosen vertex. The same edges without a chosen root give no such ordering.

9. 9
   adjective

   Compromised through unauthorized access to the system's superuser (root) account.

   Security found that several rooted machines were leaking data to an outside server.

   Once a system is rooted, the intruder has the same access as the administrator.

   Similarcompromised

   Oppositesecure

   Note

   A security word that applies to machines and, by extension, to the people who own them: "You are rooted." Unlike the other senses, it does not compare. A system is rooted or it is not, never more rooted. The root behind it is the name of the all-powerful superuser account, not anything that grows.

Showing meanings only. Show all 9