Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of rootle.
  • noun A small or miniature root; a rootlet.
  • noun a plantling just beginning to root.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From root +‎ -ling.

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Examples

  • I normally find them rootling in the reeds along Carleton Beck, and in this post-Christmas soft spell it makes me want to clench my fist and wave it at the heavens as a salute to their winter survival.

    Country diary: Claxton, Norfolk 2011

  • Sawdays, the guidebook publisher that specialises in rootling out special places to stay, is about to launch Dog-friendly Breaks in Britain £14.99, sawdays.co.uk.

    Going goth in Whitby 2011

  • And recessions bring out the piggy part of human nature, the part that is stubborn and selfish and intent only on rootling around for sufficient food.

    A Bit of a Grumble « Tales from the Reading Room 2008

  • Where were ye yesterday-rootling under the trees like a hog?

    Sick Cycle Carousel 2010

  • There is nothing to stop me – or a Wada patrol, or one of the French television crews who like to do this kind of thing – popping in and rootling around in search of incriminating performance-enhancing stuff.

    Military precision forms the tip of Team Sky's cycling iceberg 2010

  • Waterstones now has a picture of me in the window and somehow has sold two copies of the book even though it isn't out yet ask if they have some "behind the counter", apparently, and rootling in the stockroom will see copies ferreted out.

    :Acquired Taste Tim Stretton 2008

  • And rootling through poo would offer Gordon the sort of post-premier employment opportunity he is actually qualified for.

    Archive 2008-09-01 Patrick Vessey 2008

  • Waterstones now has a picture of me in the window and somehow has sold two copies of the book even though it isn't out yet ask if they have some "behind the counter", apparently, and rootling in the stockroom will see copies ferreted out.

    Archive 2008-07-01 Tim Stretton 2008

  • His uncle boosted him unceremoniously back into his bed, covered him up, then began rootling about in the dark, in search of the rifle he had put down.

    A Breath of Snow and Ashes Gabaldon, Diana 2005

  • Luckily both of them were dressed in old clothes, suitable for rootling in filth.

    Dragonfly in Amber Gabaldon, Diana 1992

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