extract
/ˈɛkstɹækt/ noun, verb
Forms extracts extracting extracted extraught
- noun Something that is extracted or drawn out.
- noun A portion of a book, document, recording etc. incorporated distinctly in another work (for written or spoken words, synoymous to a citation; a quotation). “I used an extract of Hemingway's book to demonstrate culture shock.”
- noun A decoction, solution, or infusion made by drawing out from any substance that which gives it its essential and characteristic virtue “vanilla extract”
- noun Any substance extracted is such a way, and characteristic of that from which it is obtained “quinine is the most important extract of Peruvian bark.”
- noun A solid preparation obtained by evaporating a solution of a drug, etc., or the fresh juice of a plant (distinguished from an abstract).
- noun (obsolete) A peculiar principle (fundamental essence) once erroneously supposed to form the basis of all vegetable extracts.
- noun Ancestry; descent.
- noun A draft or copy of writing; a certified copy of the proceedings in an action and the judgment therein, with an order for execution.
- verb (transitive) To draw out; to pull out; to remove forcibly from a fixed position, as by traction or suction, etc. “to extract a tooth from its socket, a stump from the earth, or a splinter from the finger”
- verb (transitive) To withdraw by squeezing, distillation, or other mechanical or chemical process. Compare abstract (transitive verb). “to extract an essential oil from a plant”
- verb (transitive) To pick out; to cite or reproduce a snippet of “extract a passage from a text.”
- verb (transitive) To select parts of a whole “We need to try to extract the positives from the defeat.”
- verb (transitive, arithmetic) To determine (a root of a number). “Please extract the cube root of 27.”
Synonyms
extraction extractive principle origin outdraw sunder out infusion excerpt excerption selection pull out pull pull up take out draw out educe evoke elicit distill distil press out express
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin extractum, neuter perfect passive participle of extrahō, from ex- (“out of”) + trahō (“to drag”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To draw out or forth; to pull out; to remove forcibly from a fixed position, as by traction or suction, etc.; as, to extract a tooth from its socket, a stump from the earth, a splinter from the finger.
- verb To withdraw by expression, distillation, or other mechanical or chemical process; as, to extract an essence. Cf. Abstract, v. t., 6.
- noun That which is extracted or drawn out.
- noun A portion of a book or document, separately transcribed; a citation; a quotation.
Etymology [L. extractus, p. p. of extrahere to extract; ex out + trahere to draw. See Trace, and cf. Estreat.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “extract”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details