take root

take root (third-person singular simple present takes root, present participle taking root, simple past took root, past participle taken root)

1. (intransitive, literally) To grow roots into soil.

   Those tulip bulbs have taken root.

2. (intransitive, figuratively) To become established, to take hold.

   The new regulations have yet to take root.

   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

     You have of late stood out against your brother, and he hath ta'en you newly into his grace; where it is impossible you should take true root but by the fair weather that you make yourself: it is needful that you frame the season for your own harvest.

• rooting hormone