Definitions

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

  • adjective Resembling a root or roots (of a plant), or some aspect of them.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

root +‎ -like

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word rootlike.

Examples

  • The region can be visualized as a rootlike labyrinth of narrow inlets, estuaries, and bays reaching south to the state capital, Olympia, 200 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean.

    The American Oyster Paradise Richard Nalley 2010

  • The article details how the crop produced at California mushroom farm Far West Fungi — actually the thin, white rootlike fibers of the mushrooms — is being used in what's been dubbed "mycotecture."

    Talk about your magic mushrooms. Mycelium shows promise as building material 2010

  • This primitive placenta has tiny rootlike projections that penetrate the uterine lining and acquire nutrients for the developing embryo.

    Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn Penny Simkin 2010

  • The article details how the crop produced at California mushroom farm Far West Fungi—actually the thin, white rootlike fibers of the mushrooms—is being used in what's been dubbed "mycotecture."

    Talk about your magic mushrooms. Mycelium shows promise as building material 2010

  • Lichen-plastered rocks and loose gravel scrolled underneath at a steady pace as the tree ambled on hundreds of small rootlike legs.

    The Search For WondLa Tony DiTerlizzi 2010

  • This primitive placenta has tiny rootlike projections that penetrate the uterine lining and acquire nutrients for the developing embryo.

    Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn Penny Simkin 2010

  • I wanted something that looked like the grabber, but also was rootlike and a little, well, more finger-shaped.

    Twitters for 11-6-08 maryrobinette 2008

  • And this rain slip-slipping down the window, capillary, fragmentary, bled, and bleeding out, a kind of river delta, spreading like the rootlike veining of the heart or the ganglia of nerve cells off the spine, the spine itself

    Meander 2005

  • And this rain slip-slipping down the window, capillary, fragmentary, bled, and bleeding out, a kind of river delta, spreading like the rootlike veining of the heart or the ganglia of nerve cells off the spine, the spine itself

    Meander 2005

  • The earth felt spongy beneath his bare, rootlike feet, and he found it hard to control the urge to dig his toes down into the rich soil and taste his homeland again.

    Bloodlines Coleman, Loren L. 1999

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.