Foot vs Root - What's the difference?
foot | root |
(countable) A biological structure found in many animals that is used for locomotion and that is frequently a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg. (jump)
(countable, anatomy) Specifically, a human foot, which is found below the ankle and is used for standing and walking. (jump)
(uncountable, often used attributively) Travel by walking. (walking)
(countable) The base or bottom of anything. (jump)
(countable) The part of a flat surface on which the feet customarily rest.
(countable) The end of a rectangular table opposite the head. (jump)
(countable) A short foot-like projection on the bottom of an object to support it. (jump)
(countable) A unit of measure equal to twelve inches or one third of a yard, equal to exactly 30.48 centimetres.
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=20 (military, pluralonly) Foot soldiers; infantry. (jump)
* Clarendon
(countable, cigars) The end of a cigar which is lit, and usually cut before lighting.
(countable, sewing) The part of a sewing machine which presses downward on the fabric, and may also serve to move it forward.
(countable, printing) The bottommost part of a typed or printed page. (jump)
(countable, prosody) The basic measure of rhythm in a poem. (jump)
(countable, phonology) The parsing of syllables into prosodic constituents, which are used to determine the placement of stress in languages along with the notions of constituent heads.
(countable, nautical) The bottom edge of a sail.
(countable, billiards) The end of a billiard or pool table behind the foot point where the balls are racked.
(countable, botany) In a bryophyte, that portion of a sporophyte which remains embedded within and attached to the parent gametophyte plant.
*
(countable, malacology) The muscular part of a bivalve mollusc by which it moves or holds its position on a surface.
(countable, molecular biology) The globular lower domain of a protein. (jump)
(countable, geometry) The foot of a line perpendicular to a given line is the point where the lines intersect.
Fundamental principle; basis; plan. (never used in the plural)
* Berkeley
Recognized condition; rank; footing. (never used in the plural)
* Walpole
To use the foot to kick (usually a ball).
To pay (a bill).
To tread to measure or music; to dance; to trip; to skip.
To walk.
To tread.
(obsolete) To set on foot; to establish; to land.
* Shakespeare
To renew the foot of (a stocking, etc.).
To sum up, as the numbers in a column; sometimes with up .
The part of a plant, generally underground, that absorbs water and nutrients.
A root vegetable.
*
The part of a tooth extending into the bone holding the tooth in place.
The part of a hair under the skin that holds the hair in place.
The part of a hair near the skin that has not been dyed, permed, or otherwise treated.
The primary source; origin.
* John Locke
(arithmetic) Of a number or expression, a number which, when raised to a specified power, yields the specified number or expression.
(arithmetic) A square root (understood if no power is specified; in which case, “the root of” is often abbreviated to “root”).
(analysis) A zero (of a function).
(graph theory, computing) The single node of a tree that has no parent.
(linguistic morphology) The primary lexical unit of a word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents. Inflectional stems often derive from roots.
(philology) A word from which another word or words are derived.
(music) The fundamental tone of any chord; the tone from whose harmonics, or overtones, a chord is composed.
The lowest place, position, or part.
* Milton
* Southey
(computing) In UNIX terminology, the first user account with complete access to the operating system and its configuration, found at the root of the directory structure.
(computing) The person who manages accounts on a UNIX system.
(computing) The highest directory of a directory structure which may contain both files and subdirectories. (rfex)
(computing, slang, transitive) To break into a computer system and obtain root access.
To fix the root; to enter the earth, as roots; to take root and begin to grow.
* Mortimer
* '>citation
To be firmly fixed; to be established.
* Bishop Fell
To turn up or dig with the snout.
(by extension) To seek favour or advancement by low arts or grovelling servility; to fawn.
To rummage, to search as if by digging in soil.
To root out; to abolish.
* Shakespeare
* Bible, Deuteronomy xxix. 28
(Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, slang) To have sexual intercourse.
(Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, slang) An act of sexual intercourse.
(Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, slang) A sexual partner.
(intransitive, with for, US) To cheer to show support for.
* 1908 ,
(US) To hope for the success of. Rendered as 'root for'.
In transitive terms the difference between foot and root
is that foot is to pay (a bill) while root is to root out; to abolish.foot
English
(wikipedia foot)Noun
(feet)citation, passage=‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’}}
- His forces, after all the high discourses, amounted really but to eighteen hundred foot .
- (b ) sporophyte with foot reduced, the entire sporophyte enveloped by the calyptra, which is ± stipitate at the base.
- Answer directly upon the foot of dry reason.
- As to his being on the foot of a servant.
Usage notes
* (jump) The ordinary plural of the unit of measurement is (feet), but in many contexts, (term) itself may be used ("he is six foot two"). This is a reflex of the Anglo-Saxon (Old English) genitive plural.Rich Alderson, “Why do we say ‘30 years old’, but ‘a 30-year-old man’?”, in Mark Israel, the alt.usage.english FAQ. * It is sometimes abbreviated ' , such as in tables, lists or drawings.Derived terms
* a closed mouth gathers no feet * afoot * acre-foot * athlete's foot * best foot * Bigfoot * board foot * clubfoot * Chinese foot * cubic foot * footage * foot-and-mouth disease * football * footboard * footboy * foot brake * footbridge * footcandle * footfall * foot fault * footgear * foothill * foothold * footing * foot-in-mouth disease * foot iron * foot landraker * footlights * foot line * footlocker * footloose * foot louse * footly * footman * foot-mouth * footnote * footpad * footpath * foot-pound * foot post * footprint * foot pump * footrest * footrope * footsie * footsie-wootsies * foot soldier * footsore * footstep * footstone * footstool * foot warmer * footwear * footwell * footwork * footworn * four foot * get one's foot in the door * Hong Kong foot * immersion foot * itchy feet * Japanese foot * put one's foot in one's mouth * rabbit's foot * Roman foot * shoot oneself in the foot * six foot * square foot * start off on the wrong foot * trench foot * wrongfoot * See alsoCoordinate terms
* inch, yard, mile * (jump) head, sides * (jump) head, body * head, leech, luff * (jump) head, cleft, neck * (jump) horseSee also
* , relating to the footVerb
(en verb)- (Dryden)
- (Shakespeare)
- to foot the green
- (Tickell)
- What confederacy have you with the traitors / Late footed in the kingdom?
- (Shakespeare)
- to foot (or foot up) an account
Derived terms
* foot the billReferences
root
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) ; cognate with wort and radix.Noun
(en noun)- This tree's roots can go as deep as twenty metres underground.
- two fields which should have been sown with roots in the early summer were not sown because the ploughing had not been completed early enough.
- Root damage is a common problem of overbrushing.
- The root is the only part of the hair that is alive.
- He dyed his hair black last month, so the grey roots can be seen.
- The love of money is the root of all evil.
- They were the roots out of which sprang two distinct people.
- The cube root of 27 is 3.
- Multiply by root 2.
- (Busby)
- deep to the roots of hell
- the roots of the mountains
Synonyms
* (source) basis, origin, source * (zero of a function) zero * (word from which another is derived) etymon * superuser (), root account, root userAntonyms
* (zero of a function) poleHolonyms
* (zero of a function) kernelDerived terms
* cube root * functional root * put down roots * root canal * root cause * rootkit * roots * roots music * rootsy * square root * strictly roots * take root * taproot * root gapVerb
(en verb)- We rooted his box and planted a virus on it.
- In deep grounds the weeds root deeper.
- If any irregularity chanced to intervene and to cause misapprehensions, he gave them not leave to root and fasten by concealment.
See also
* (linguistics) stemEtymology 2
From (etyl) . Cognate with rodent. Cognate with Dutch wroeten.Verb
(en verb)- A pig roots the earth for truffles.
- rooting about in a junk-filled drawer
- I will go root away the noisome weeds.
- The Lord rooted them out of their land and cast them into another land.
Usage notes
* The Australian/New Zealand sexual sense is somewhat milder than fuck but still quite coarse, certainly not for polite conversation. The sexual sense will often be understood, unless care is taken with the context to make the rummage sense clear, or 'root through' or 'root around' is used. The past participle rooted'' is equivalent to ''fucked'' in the figurative sense of broken or tired, but ''rooting'' is only the direct verbal sense, not an all-purpose intensive like ''fucking .Synonyms
* (rummage) dig out, root out, rummage * (have sexual intercourse) screw, bang, drill (US), shag (British) - See alsoDerived terms
* root about * rooted * root out * root upNoun
(en noun)- Fancy a root ?
Usage notes
* The Australian/New Zealand sexual sense of root'' is somewhat milder than ''fuck'' but still quite coarse, certainly not for polite conversation. The normal usage is ''to have a root or similar.Synonyms
* (act of sexual intercourse) screw (qualifier), shag (UK); see also * (sexual partner) screw (US)Etymology 3
Possibly an alteration of , influenced by hootVerb
(en verb)- Let me root', '''root''', ' root for the home team,
- I'm rooting for you, don't let me down!