Word.ws English Dictionary

rootling

rootling is the present participle and gerund of rootle.

Noun

rootling (plural rootlings)

  1. A small or miniature root; a rootlet.
  2. a plantling just beginning to root.
    • Coming to actual plantation, we are confronted by the question whether a cutting or a rootling is to be prepared.1928, Victoria. Dept. of Agriculture, The Journal of the Department of Agriculture of Victoria - Volume 25 - Page 417
    • Our little 69¢ gem really took off and outgrew its pot. My sother separated and transplanted it. Now there were several pots (we had given little rootlings away to special friends in Toronto too) and the plant was doing strong.1981 April 18, Nancy Walker, “I'm A Nut”, in Gay Community News, page 13

Meaning of rootle

Verb

rootle (third-person singular simple present rootles, present participle rootling, simple past and past participle rootled)

  1. to dig into the ground, with the snout.
    • Once, presumably, this quadrangle with its smooth lawns, its massive buildings, and the chapel itself was marsh too, where the grasses waved and the swine rootled.1929, Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own, Penguin Books, paperback edition, page 11
  2. to search for something from a drawer, closet, etc.; to dig out.
    • 'There's a tin of cocoa in my study somewhere,' Perowne shouted after him. 'Rootle round till you find it, and take it up.'1908, Rudyard Kipling, Regulus

Forms of rootling

pluralrootlings

Origin of rootling

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

From root + -ling.

Questions about rootling

What does rootling mean?
Rootling means a small or miniature root; a rootlet.
What is rootling the present participle and gerund of?
Rootling is the present participle and gerund of rootle.
What part of speech is rootling?
Rootling is a noun.
What is the plural of rootling?
The plural of rootling is rootlings.

Words near rootling in the dictionary

  1. rootlessness
  2. rootlessnesses
  3. rootlet
  4. rootlets
  5. rootlike
  6. rootling
  7. rootlings
  8. rootogram
  9. rootograms
  10. rootrot
  11. rootrots

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rootling (page history and authors); rootle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “rootling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rootling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.