uproot

/ˈʌpˌrut/

/əpˈrut/

Other forms: uprooted; uprooting; uproots

When you uproot people, you move them from one place to a completely new one. Your parents may need to uproot you if your mom gets a new job all the way across the country.

One meaning of the verb uproot is "move," especially when a person is forced to move. Another way to use uproot is more literal: to pull a plant out of the ground, roots and all. You might, for example, uproot your favorite rose bush and replant it in a sunnier spot in your garden. Interestingly, the figurative sense of uproot is about a hundred years older than the literal meaning, which was first used in the late 1600's.

Definitions of uproot

1. verb

   move (people) forcibly from their homeland into a new and foreign environment
   “The war uprooted many people”

   synonyms: deracinate

   type of:

   displace

   cause to move, usually with force or pressure
2. verb

   pull up by or as if by the roots
   “uproot the vine that has spread all over the garden”

   synonyms: deracinate, extirpate, root out

   types:

   stub

   pull up (weeds) by their roots

   type of:

   displace, move

   cause to move or shift into a new position or place, both in a concrete and in an abstract sense
3. verb

   destroy completely, as if down to the roots
   synonyms: eradicate, exterminate, extirpate, root out

   type of:

   destroy, destruct

   do away with, cause the destruction or undoing of