rootle

English

Etymology

Frequentative root +‎ -le.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹuːtəl/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -uːtəl

Verb

rootle (third-person singular simple present rootles, present participle rootling, simple past and past participle rootled)

1. (of an animal) to dig into the ground, with the snout.
   • 2019 February 25, Christopher de Bellaigue, “The end of farming?”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Removing internal fences allowed the wild Exmoor ponies and Tamworth pigs he introduced to browse and rootle over large distances, their disruptions creating habitats for other animals and plants.

   • 1929, Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own, Penguin Books, paperback edition, page 11

     Once, presumably, this quadrangle with its smooth lawns, its massive buildings, and the chapel itself was marsh too, where the grasses waved and the swine rootled.

2. (of a person) to search for something from a drawer, closet, etc.; to dig out.
   • 2016, Kerry Greenwood, Murder and Mendelssohn, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 288:

     Bathed and changed, she rootled out Lambie from the bottom of her wardrobe.'

Anagrams

• looter, retool, tooler