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secondary roots
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English Dictionary: secondary roots by the DICT Development Group
1 result for secondary roots
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
  
  
      2. An edible or esculent root, especially of such plants as
            produce a single root, as the beet, carrot, etc.; as, the
            root crop.
  
      3. That which resembles a root in position or function, esp.
            as a source of nourishment or support; that from which
            anything proceeds as if by growth or development; as, the
            root of a tooth, a nail, a cancer, and the like.
            Specifically:
            (a) An ancestor or progenitor; and hence, an early race; a
                  stem.
  
                           They were the roots out of which sprang two
                           distinct people.                           --Locke.
            (b) A primitive form of speech; one of the earliest terms
                  employed in language; a word from which other words
                  are formed; a radix, or radical.
            (c) The cause or occasion by which anything is brought
                  about; the source. [bd]She herself . . . is root of
                  bounty.[b8] --Chaucer.
  
                           The love of money is a root of all kinds of
                           evil.                                          --1 Tim. vi.
                                                                              10 (rev. Ver.)
            (d) (Math.) That factor of a quantity which when
                  multiplied into itself will produce that quantity;
                  thus, 3 is a root of 9, because 3 multiplied into
                  itself produces 9; 3 is the cube root of 27.
            (e) (Mus.) The fundamental tone of any chord; the tone
                  from whose harmonics, or overtones, a chord is
                  composed. --Busby.
            (f) The lowest place, position, or part. [bd]Deep to the
                  roots of hell.[b8] --Milton. [bd]The roots of the
                  mountains.[b8] --Southey.
  
      4. (Astrol.) The time which to reckon in making calculations.
  
                     When a root is of a birth yknowe [known]. --Chaucer.
  
      {A[89]rial roots}. (Bot.)
            (a) Small roots emitted from the stem of a plant in the
                  open air, which, attaching themselves to the bark of
                  trees, etc., serve to support the plant.
            (b) Large roots growing from the stem, etc., which descend
                  and establish themselves in the soil. See Illust. of
                  {Mangrove}.
  
      {Multiple primary root} (Bot.), a name given to the numerous
            roots emitted from the radicle in many plants, as the
            squash.
  
      {Primary root} (Bot.), the central, first-formed, main root,
            from which the rootlets are given off.
  
      {Root and branch}, every part; wholly; completely; as, to
            destroy an error root and branch.
  
      {Root-and-branch men}, radical reformers; -- a designation
            applied to the English Independents (1641). See Citation
            under {Radical}, n., 2.
  
      {Root barnacle} (Zo[94]l.), one of the Rhizocephala.
  
      {Root hair} (Bot.), one of the slender, hairlike fibers found
            on the surface of fresh roots. They are prolongations of
            the superficial cells of the root into minute tubes.
            --Gray.
  
      {Root leaf} (Bot.), a radical leaf. See {Radical}, a., 3
            (b) .
  
      {Root louse} (Zo[94]l.), any plant louse, or aphid, which
            lives on the roots of plants, as the Phylloxera of the
            grapevine. See {Phylloxera}.
  
      {Root of an equation} (Alg.), that value which, substituted
            for the unknown quantity in an equation, satisfies the
            equation.
  
      {Root of a nail}
            (Anat.), the part of a nail which is covered by the skin.
                       
  
      {Root of a tooth} (Anat.), the part of a tooth contained in
            the socket and consisting of one or more fangs.
  
      {Secondary roots} (Bot.), roots emitted from any part of the
            plant above the radicle.
  
      {To strike root}, {To take root}, to send forth roots; to
            become fixed in the earth, etc., by a root; hence, in
            general, to become planted, fixed, or established; to
            increase and spread; as, an opinion takes root. [bd]The
            bended twigs take root.[b8] --Milton.
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