rooted out
Dug up entirely
Rooted out means discovered and removed, especially something hidden or harmful.
The image is of pulling up a plant by the roots—complete elimination, not just trimming.
Investigators root out corruption.
Reformers root out inefficiency.
The new manager rooted out the employees who had been stealing.
The phrase implies thorough, deliberate effort to find what's concealed and eliminate it entirely.
- eradicateDestroy completely, utterly
- exterminateDestroy completely, every one
- extirpateDestroy utterly, completely
- uncoveredMade visible or known
- exposedOut in open
purged · eliminated · turned up · probed · investigated · unearthed · pruned · extracted · cleansed · detected · purified · revealed · sifted through · abolished · expelled · dismantled · removed · tracked down
rooted outglossed over
Superficially addressed, then moved on
swept under the rug · ignored · overlooked · left in place · perpetuated
rooted outplanted
Put into ground
implanted · embedded · established · rooted · entrenched
rooted outburied
Placed beneath earth
concealed · hidden · covered up · suppressed · hushed up
root, rooted, rooting, roots, rootless, uproot, uprooted, uprooting, out