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A root. [Obs.] Chaucer.

A yellow dyestuff extracted from the root bark of an East Indian plant (Morinda citrifolia).

faint musky smell. It is found in woods in all parts of Europe, and is called also hollow root and musk crowfoot. Loudon.

A brown, amorphous, bitter substance having a strong emetic action, extracted from the root of the mudar.

Half-rotten straw, or any like substance strewn on the ground, as over the roots of plants, to protect from heat, drought, etc., and to preserve moisture.

An inferior kind of madder prepared from the smaller roots or the peelings and refuse of the larger.

Having many heads or many stems from one crown or root. Gray.

An orangered coloring substance resembling alizarin, found in the root of an East Indian species of madder (Rubia munjista).

ound in Western North America, often cultivated, and having a strong musky odor. -- Musk root (Bot.), the name of several roots with a strong odor, as that of the nard (Nardostachys Jatamansi) and of a species of Angelica. -- Musk rose (Bot.), a species of rose (Rosa moschata), having peculiarly fragrant white blosso…

See Muskrat. Musquash root (Bot.), an umbelliferous plant (Cicuta maculata), having a poisonous root. See Water hemlock.

the point where the base of the stem of a plant arises from the root. Neck and crop, completely; wholly; altogether; roughly and at once. [Colloq.] -- Neck and neck (Racing), so nearly equal that one cannot be said to be before the other; very close; even; side by side. -- Neck of a capital. (Arch.) See Gorgerin. --…

A coarse umbelliferous plant (Ligusticum actæifolium) with a large aromatic root. It is found chiefly in the Alleghany region. Also called Angelico.

To promote growth; to furnish nutriment. Grains and roots nourish more than their leaves. Bacon.

, or incommensurable ratio. The term also includes any imaginary expression like m + nsq. root-1, where m and n are real numerics.

ass (Bot.), a plant of the Sedge family (Cyperus rotundus, var. Hydra), which has slender rootstocks bearing small, nutlike tubers, by which the plant multiplies exceedingly, especially in cotton fields. -- Nut lock, a device, as a metal plate bent up at the corners, to prevent a nut from becoming unscrewed, as by jar…

A short prostrate shoot, which takes root and produces a tuft of leaves, etc. See Illust. of Houseleek.

Of. [Obs.] "Be not jealous on me." Shak. Or have we eaten on the insane root That takes the reason prisoner Shak.

Allium (A.cepa), having a strong-flavored bulb and long hollow leaves; also, its bulbous root, much used as an article of food. The name is often extended to other species of the genus. Onion fish (Zoöl.), the grenadier. -- Onion fly (Zoöl.) a dipterous insect whose larva feeds upon the onion; especially, Anthomyia c…

A white crystalline waxy substance extracted from the root of the leguminous plant Ononis spinosa.

st; a painful experience. Ordeal bean. (Bot.) See Calabar bean, under Calabar. -- Ordeal root (Bot.) the root of a species of Strychnos growing in West Africa, used, like the ordeal bean, in trials for witchcraft. -- Ordeal tree (Bot.), a poisonous tree of Madagascar (Tanghinia, or Cerbera, venenata). Persons suspect…