deep-rooted

comparative deeper-rooted · superlative deepest-rooted

1. literallybiologyOf a plant, having deep roots.

   1791, William Cowper (translator), The Odyssey, Book 13, in The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, London: J. Johnson, Volume 2, p. 302, And now the flying bark full near approach’d, When Neptune, meeting her, with out-spread palm Depress’d her at a stroke, and she became Deep-rooted stone.

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   He observed the leaves of trees there abouts more deeply green then else∣where, the Oakes broad-spreading, but not deep-rooted;

   1662, Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England, London: Thomas Williams, page 186

   1726, Jonathan Swift (translator), “Horace, Book I, Ode XIV” in Miscellanies in Prose and Verse, London: T. Woodward and Charles Davis, 1736, Volume 5, p. 193, Poor floating Isle, tost on ill Fortune’s Waves, Ordain’d by Fate to be the Land of Slaves; Shall moving Delos now deep-rooted stand, Thou, fixt of old, be now the moving Land?

   Finally the wind eats its way far beneath the point of penetration of the deepest-rooted species (except possibly Yucca) and all these are then added to the accumulating débris on the lee slope or elsewhere.

   1894, Geological and Natural History of Minnesota, Minnesota Botanical Studies, Volume 4, page 240

   [His love was] as impossible to restore to growth as a deep-rooted plant torn from its bed.

   1905, Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth, New York: Scribner, Book 2, Chapter 13, p. 517

   The roots of prairie species are grouped into about three more or less definite absorbing layers , many of the deeper-rooted species having few or no absorbing roots in the first few feet of soil.

   1913, The University of California, Pamphlets on Range Management, Volume 10, page 144

2. Of a non-living object, deeply and firmly embedded (in the ground, etc.)
3. figurativelyFirmly established in thought or behavior and difficult to change.

   They avoid conflict at all costs because of their deep-rooted fear of upsetting people.

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   […] Temporarie faith keeping residence only in the out-face of the heart, is ouerswayed & ouerborn in temptation by euery strong desire, or deep-rooted passion.

   1631, John Ball, A Treatise of Faith, London: Edward Brewster, Part 1, Chapter 3, p

   Notwithstanding the deep-rooted notion, even amongst the majority of painters themselves, that time is a great improver of good pictures, I will undertake to shew, that nothing can be more absurd.

   1753, William Hogarth, The Analysis of Beauty, London, Chapter 14, p. 119, footnote

   1850, Charlotte Brontë, letter to Elizabeth Gaskell dated 27 August, , in Elizabeth Gaskell, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, London: Smith, Elder, 1857, Volume 2, p. 177, Certainly there are evils which our own efforts will best reach; but as certainly there are other evils—deep-rooted in the foundations of the social system—which no efforts of ours can touch:

   “He may be very well okay as a person. But other workers are not happy with him. Already they are coming to me with complaints. You see, comrade, from local standpoint, these caste issues are very deep-rooted.”

   1997, Arundhati Roy, chapter 14, in The God of Small Things, New York: Random House, page 263

   The installation of new pipes should resolve deep-rooted flooding problems.

   2022 March 9, “Network News: East London drainage work”, in RAIL, number 952, page 16

   Synonyms: ineradicable, bred-in-the-bone, deep-seated, deep-lying