R O O 
ij68 ' R O O 
To ROOT, v. n. To fix the root; to strike far into the 
earth. 
Her fallow leas 
The darnel, hemlock, and rank fumitory 
Doth root upon. Shakspeare. 
.After a year’s rooting, then shaking doth the tree good, 
by loosening of the earth. Bacon. —To turn up earth; to 
search in the earth. 
No lusty neatherd thither drove his kine, 
Nor boorish hogherd fed his rooting swine. Browne. 
To sink deep.—If any irregularity chanced to intervene, 
and cause misapprehensions, he gave them not leave to root 
and fasten by concealment. Fell. 
To ROOT, v. a. To fix deep in the earth. 
When ocean, air, and earth at once engage. 
And rooted forests fly before their rage. 
At once the clashing clouds to battle move. Dry den. 
Where the impetuous torrent rushing down 
Huge craggy stones, and rooted trees had thrown. 
They lelt their coursers. Dryden. 
To impress deeply.—The great important end that God 
designs it for, the government of mankind, sufficiently shews 
the necessity ol its being rooted deeply in the heart, and put 
beyond the danger of being torn up by any ordinary violence. 
South .—They have so rooted themselves in the opinions of 
their party, that they cannot hear an objection with patience. 
Watts. —To turn up out of the ground ; to eradicate; to 
extirpate; with a particle ; as, out or up. 
He’s a rank weed. 
And we must root him out. Shakspeare. 
Soon shall we drive back Alcibiades, 
Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up 
His country’s peace. Shakspeare. 
To destroy; to banish; with particles.—Not to destroy, 
but root them out of heaven. Milton 
ROOT-BOUND, adj. Fixed to the earth by a root. 
If I but wave this wand. 
Your nerves are all chain’d up in alabaster. 
And you a statue, or, as Daphne was, 
Root-bound, that fled Apollo. Mi/ton. 
ROOT-BUILT, adj. Built of roots. 
Philosophy requires 
No lavish cost; to crown its utmost prayer 
Suffice the root-built cell, the simple fleece, 
'The juicy viand, and the crystal stream. Shenstone 
ROOT-HOUSE, s. An edifice of roots.—Here, entering 
a gate, you are led through a thicket of many sorts of wil¬ 
lows into a large root-house, inscribed to the Earl of Stamford. 
Dodsley. 
ROOT RIVER, a river of Louisiana, which runs into the 
Mississippi. It is about 20 yards wide at the point of junc¬ 
tion, and is navigable for canoes 60 miles from its mouth. 
ROOTED, adj. Fixed ; deep ; radical. 
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, 
Raze out the written troubles of the brain. Shakspeare. 
You always joined a violent desire of perpetually changing 
places with a rooted laziness. Swij't. 
ROO'TEDLY, adv. Deeply; strongly.—They all do 
hate him as rootedly as I. Shakspeare. 
ROOTER, s. One who tears up by the root.—The 
rooters aud thorough reformers made clean work with the 
church, and took away all. South. 
ROOTS, a township of the United States, in Portgage 
county, Ohio. Population 216. 
ROOTY, adj. Full of roots. 
ROOZENBURGH, a petty island of the Netherlands, in 
the Maese, opposite to Briel, in south Holland. Population 
500. 
ROOZENDAEL, an inland town of the Netherlands, in 
the province of North Brabant, with a castle, and 4600 inha¬ 
bitants. It has a considerable trade in corn; 7 miles east- 
north-east of Bergen-op-Zoom. 
ROPALON, in Botany, a name given by some authors 
to the nymphasa, or water lily, and also to the faba JEgyptia 
of the river Nile. 
ROPCZYCE, a small town of Austrian Poland ; 17 miles 
west of Rzezou. 
ROPE, s. [pap, Saxon; rcep, roop, Dutch; raip, 
M. Goth. The Yorkshire dialect is rape. ] A cord; a 
string; a halter; a cable; a haulser. 
Thou drunken slave, I sent thee for a rope, 
And told thee to what purpose. Shakspeare. 
An anchor, let down by a rope, maketh a sound; and 
yet the rope is no solid body, whereby the sound can as¬ 
cend. Bacon. 
Who would not guess there might be hopes. 
The fear of gallowses and ropes 
Before their eyes, might reconcile 
Their animosities a while. Hudibras. 
Hang yourself up in a true rope that there may appear 
no trick in it. Arbuthnot. —Any row of things depending; 
as, a rope of onions.—l cannot but confess myself mightly 
surprized, that, in a book, which was to provide chains for 
all mankind, I should find nothing but a rope of sand. 
Locke. —The intestines of birds, [jioppap, Sax.] As, the 
ropes of a woodcock. 
To ROPE, v.n. To draw out into viscosities; to con¬ 
crete into glutinous filaments.—Such bodies partly follow 
the touch of another body, and partly stick to themselves; 
and therefore rope and draw themselves in threads; as pitch, 
glue, and birdlime. Bacon. 
RO'PEDANCER, s. An artist who dances on a rope.— 
Statius, posted on the highest of the two summits, the peo¬ 
ple regarded with terror, as they look upon a daring rope- 
dancer, whom they except to fall every moment. Addison. 
—Nice bounced up with a spring equal to that of one of 
your nimblest tumblers or ropedancers, and fell foul upon 
John Bull, to snatch the cudgel he had in his hand. Ar¬ 
buthnot. 
ROTELADDER, s. A portable ladder made of rope. 
RO'PEMAKER, or Ropeh, s. One who makes ropes 
to sell. 
The ropemakcr bear ma witness, 
That I was sent for nothing but a rope. Shakspeare. 
ROPEMAKING. This manufacture may be considered 
as highly important in any state of society; but amongst 
maritime nations it is an art of the highest utility. In this 
country, accordingly, we find it lias been more cultivated, 
and with greater success, than in any other. 
Ropes are made of every substance that is sufficiently 
fibrous, flexible, and tenacious, but chiefly the barks of 
plants. The Chinese and other orientals even make them of 
the ligneous parts of several plants, such as certain bamboos 
and reeds, the stems of the aloes, the fibrous covering of the 
cocoa nut, the filament of the cotton pod, and the leaves of 
some grasses, such as the sparte (Lygeum, Linn.) The aloe 
(Agave, Linn.) and the sparte exceed all others in strength. 
But the barks of plants are the most productive of fibrous 
matter fit for this manufacture. Those of the linden tree, 
(Tilia,) of the willow, the bramble, the nettle, are fre¬ 
quently used : but hemp and flax are of all others the best; 
and of these the hemp is preferred, and employed in all 
cordage exceeding the size of a line. 
Hemp differs greatly according to its soil, climate, and 
culture. The best in Europe comes to us through Riga, to 
which port it is brought lrom very distant places to the 
southward. It is known by the name of Riga rein (that is, 
clean riga)., Its fibre is not the longest, but the most flexible, 
and strongest. The next to this is supposed to be the Peters - 
burgh braak hemp. 
It has been demonstrated by direct experiment as well as 
by deductions from more general physical laws, that the 
