take root

idiomatic phrase

1

of a plant : to grow and develop roots : to become rooted

… damage to the ecosystem makes it easier for nonnative plants … to take root and crowd out native vegetation.

—Mary K. Miller

2

: to become fixed or established

… providing the steadiness and resolve needed to ensure that civilizations can take root and flourish.

—Greg Grandin

A monstrous suspicion had begun to take root in his mind.

—P. G. Wodehouse

Examples of take root in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

What is no longer in alignment with your truth will be stripped away so that something authentic can take root. —Valerie Mesa, PEOPLE, 24 Oct. 2025

Incubation gives your mind time to clear out bad ideas that were beginning to take root. —Big Think, 23 Oct. 2025

Oklahoma’s thriving Red Dirt music scene took root following Guthrie’s death in 1967, when a handful of songwriters in the state decided to collaborate, in the process centering their music around Guthrie’s blue-collar values. —Josh Crutchmer, Rolling Stone, 22 Oct. 2025

The titanically prolific King is himself workmanlike on a sentence level, but his ideas have a way of slinking into the subconscious and taking root. —Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 22 Oct. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for take root

• absolute
• arrowroot
• attribute
• bitterroot
• constitute
• convolute
• destitute
• disrepute
• dissolute
• execute
• institute
• involute