The two cast-steel prongs straddle the weed at the crown. Your foot drives them into the soil using the steel lever. Then you lean the long handle in the opposite direction — not pull, not yank, just lean — and the tool pries the weed up from underneath. The taproot comes with it. There is nothing left in the ground to regrow.
The motion is gentle and the leverage is enormous. A 44-inch handle multiplies your weight against the resistance of the soil. The deeper the root, the better this tool works. Dandelions in lawn, plantain in the cracks of a brick path, thistle along a fence line — it all comes out the same way.