Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To pull out by the roots; uproot.
  • transitive verb To displace from one's native or accustomed environment.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To pluck up by the roots; eradicate; extirpate: as, to deracinate hair.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb rare To pluck up by the roots; to extirpate.

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

  • verb To pull up by the roots; to uproot; to extirpate.
  • verb To force people from their homeland to a new or foreign location.
  • verb To liberate or be liberated from a culture or its norms.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb pull up by or as if by the roots
  • verb move (people) forcibly from their homeland into a new and foreign environment

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From French déraciner, from Old French desraciner : des-, de- + racine, root (from Late Latin rādīcīna, from Latin rādīx, rādīc-; see wrād- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French déraciner, from racine ("root"), from Latin radix, radicis ("root").

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Examples

Comments

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  • “St. Kilda, deracinated and depopulated, was finally evacuated in the early 1930s.�?

    The New York Times, Inching Along the Edge of the World, by Will Self, October 23, 2008

    October 25, 2008

  • deracinate

    to uproot; take out of one's native environment

    April 27, 2022