root
root put down roots begin to have a settled life in a particular place (literally, of a plant, begin to draw nourishment from the soil through its roots).
root and branch used to express the thorough or radical nature of a process or operation; originally with biblical allusion to Malachi 4:1 ‘the day cometh that shall burn them up…that it shall leave them neither root nor branch’.
the root of the matter the essential part of something; the expression comes originally from Job 19:28.
strike at the root affect in a vital area with potentially destructive results. A similar biblical metaphor for imminent destruction is found at Matthew 3:10.
root and branch used to express the thorough or radical nature of a process or operation; originally with biblical allusion to Malachi 4:1 ‘the day cometh that shall burn them up…that it shall leave them neither root nor branch’.
the root of the matter the essential part of something; the expression comes originally from Job 19:28.
strike at the root affect in a vital area with potentially destructive results. A similar biblical metaphor for imminent destruction is found at Matthew 3:10.
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root
