"root about" meaning in English

See root about in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: roots about [present, singular, third-person], rooting about [participle, present], rooted about [participle, past], rooted about [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} root about (third-person singular simple present roots about, present participle rooting about, simple past and past participle rooted about)
  1. (of a pig, literal) To forage by poking the snout here and there. Tags: of a pig Synonyms (literally: to forage): root around
    Sense id: en-root_about-en-verb-w5ti6lfA Disambiguation of 'literally: to forage': 72 8 20
  2. To search for something in a similar manner.
    Sense id: en-root_about-en-verb-Ldt8TqC4
  3. (figuratively) To rummage; to look for something in a somewhat aimless fashion. Tags: figuratively Synonyms: rummage, rootle Synonyms (figuratively: to rummage): root around Translations ((figuratively) to rummage): ανασκαλεύω (anaskalévo) (Greek), ры́ться (rýtʹsja) [neuter] (Russian)
    Sense id: en-root_about-en-verb-frYH00l9 Disambiguation of 'figuratively: to rummage': 6 7 86 Disambiguation of '(figuratively) to rummage': 8 9 83

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for root about meaning in English (2.4kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "roots about",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "rooting about",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "rooted about",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "rooted about",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "root about (third-person singular simple present roots about, present participle rooting about, simple past and past participle rooted about)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "To forage by poking the snout here and there."
      ],
      "id": "en-root_about-en-verb-w5ti6lfA",
      "links": [
        [
          "forage",
          "forage"
        ],
        [
          "poking",
          "poke"
        ],
        [
          "snout",
          "snout"
        ],
        [
          "here and there",
          "here and there"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "literal",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(of a pig, literal) To forage by poking the snout here and there."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "72 8 20",
          "sense": "literally: to forage",
          "word": "root around"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "of a pig"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 271",
          "text": "Besides, the father would not give him leave to go, for he said it was no use his trying, who had so little sense; all he could do was to sit in a corner on the hearth, like a cat, rooting about in the ashes and cutting chips.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To search for something in a similar manner."
      ],
      "id": "en-root_about-en-verb-Ldt8TqC4"
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I'm rooting about for ideas for a novel",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To rummage; to look for something in a somewhat aimless fashion."
      ],
      "id": "en-root_about-en-verb-frYH00l9",
      "links": [
        [
          "rummage",
          "rummage"
        ],
        [
          "look",
          "look"
        ],
        [
          "aimless",
          "aimless"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively) To rummage; to look for something in a somewhat aimless fashion."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "6 7 86",
          "sense": "figuratively: to rummage",
          "word": "root around"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "18 0 82",
          "word": "rummage"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "18 0 82",
          "word": "rootle"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "8 9 83",
          "code": "el",
          "lang": "Greek",
          "roman": "anaskalévo",
          "sense": "(figuratively) to rummage",
          "word": "ανασκαλεύω"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "8 9 83",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "rýtʹsja",
          "sense": "(figuratively) to rummage",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "ры́ться"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "root about"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "roots about",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "rooting about",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "rooted about",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "rooted about",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "root about (third-person singular simple present roots about, present participle rooting about, simple past and past participle rooted about)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "To forage by poking the snout here and there."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "forage",
          "forage"
        ],
        [
          "poking",
          "poke"
        ],
        [
          "snout",
          "snout"
        ],
        [
          "here and there",
          "here and there"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "literal",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(of a pig, literal) To forage by poking the snout here and there."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "of a pig"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 271",
          "text": "Besides, the father would not give him leave to go, for he said it was no use his trying, who had so little sense; all he could do was to sit in a corner on the hearth, like a cat, rooting about in the ashes and cutting chips.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To search for something in a similar manner."
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I'm rooting about for ideas for a novel",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To rummage; to look for something in a somewhat aimless fashion."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "rummage",
          "rummage"
        ],
        [
          "look",
          "look"
        ],
        [
          "aimless",
          "aimless"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively) To rummage; to look for something in a somewhat aimless fashion."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "literally: to forage",
      "word": "root around"
    },
    {
      "sense": "figuratively: to rummage",
      "word": "root around"
    },
    {
      "word": "rummage"
    },
    {
      "word": "rootle"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "el",
      "lang": "Greek",
      "roman": "anaskalévo",
      "sense": "(figuratively) to rummage",
      "word": "ανασκαλεύω"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "rýtʹsja",
      "sense": "(figuratively) to rummage",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "ры́ться"
    }
  ],
  "word": "root about"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-03-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-03-01 using wiktextract (68773ab and 5f6ddbb). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.