Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
rootlet [root-lit, roo t-] ExamplesWord Origin noun Botany.
- a little root.
- a small or fine branch of a root.
- one of the adventitious roots by which ivy or the like clings to rocks or other supports.
Origin of rootlet First recorded in 1785–95; root1 + -let Examples from the Web for rootlet Historical Examples of rootlet
At last it lit upon a rootlet of the tree, quite over her shoulder.
Bret Harte
The obstruction of granite rocks, cannot force the rootlet upward, nor drive the leaflet down.
Anonymous
It sent downward a rootlet to get soil and water, and upward it shot a stem to which the first pair of leaves was attached.
N.H. Egleston
Every growing shoot of a great tree is continually describing small ellipses; the tip of every rootlet endeavours to do the same.
G. T. (George Thomas) Bettany
No structure in plants appears more wonderful, as Darwin describes it, than the tip of the rootlet of a seedling.
G. T. (George Thomas) Bettany
British Dictionary definitions for rootlet rootlet noun
- a small root or branch of a root