extract

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To draw or pull out, often with great force or effort: extract a wisdom tooth; used tweezers to extract the splinter.
2. v. To obtain despite resistance: extract a promise.
3. v. To obtain from a substance by chemical or mechanical action, as by pressure, distillation, or evaporation.
4. v. To remove for separate consideration or publication; excerpt.
5. v. To derive or obtain (information, for example) from a source.
6. v. To deduce (a principle or doctrine); construe (a meaning).
7. v. To derive (pleasure or comfort) from an experience.
8. v. Mathematics To determine or calculate (the root of a number).
9. n. Something extracted, especially:
10. n. A passage from a literary work; an excerpt.
11. n. A concentrated preparation of the essential constituents of a food, flavoring, or other substance; a concentrate: maple extract.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To draw out; withdraw; take or get out; pull out or remove from a fixed position, literally or figuratively.
2. To separate or eliminate, as a constituent part from the whole, as by distillation or heat, or other chemical or physical means: as, to extract spirit from cane-juice, or salt from sea-water.
3. Hence Figuratively, to obtain as if by distillation or chemical action; draw or bring out by some process: as, to extract pleasure from a quiet life; to extract instruction from adversity.
4. To pick out or select; segregate, as from a collection, or from a book or writing.
5. n. That which is extracted or drawn out.
6. n. Anything drawn from a substance by distillation, heat, solution, or other chemical or physical process, as an essence or tincture. A pharmaceutical extract consists of the active principles of a drug, obtained by maceration, percolation, or decoction with a suitable menstruum, or by using the expressed juice of the fresh plant, and reducing the solution thus obtained to a proper consistency and strength by evaporation. The menstrua used are water, alcohol, and ether, or two of these combined, and in some cases aqua ammoniæ, glycerin, or hydrochloric or acetic acid is added. Hard, soft, and fluid extracts are distinguished. Soft extracts are of pilular consistence; fluid extracts are (U. S. P., 1880) brought to such bulk that one cubic centimeter represents one gram of the crude drug.
7. n. Hence A concentration of the principles or elements of anything; a condensed embodiment or representation.
8. n. In chem., a peculiar principle once supposed to form the basis of all vegetable extracts. Also called the extractive principle.
9. n. In lit., a passage taken from a book or writing; an excerpt; a citation; a quotation.
10. n. Extraction; descent; origin.
11. n. In Scots law, a copy, authenticated by the proper officer, of a deed, writing, or other entry, the principal of which is in a public record, or a transcript of which taken from the principal has been preserved in a public record.
12. n. Shoddy or loose wool fiber, obtained by tearing apart old cloth, from which the cotton or other vegetable fiber has been removed by means of acids and heat.

Wiktionary

1. n. That which is extracted or drawn out.
2. n. A portion of a book or document, incorporated distinctly in another work; a citation; a quotation.
3. n. A decoction, solution, or infusion made by drawing out from any substance that which gives it its essential and characteristic virtue; essence; as, extract of beef; extract of dandelion; also, any substance so extracted, and characteristic of that from which it is obtained; as, quinine is the most important extract of Peruvian bark.
4. n. A solid preparation obtained by evaporating a solution of a drug, etc., or the fresh juice of a plant; -- distinguished from an abstract.
5. n. obsolete A peculiar principle (fundamental essence) once erroneously supposed to form the basis of all vegetable extracts; -- called also the extractive principle.
6. n. Ancestry; descent.
7. n. A draft or copy of writing; a certified copy of the proceedings in an action and the judgment therein, with an order for execution.
8. v. transitive 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.
9. v. transitive To withdraw by expression, distillation, or other mechanical or chemical process; as, to extract an essence. Compare abstract, transitive verb.
10. v. transitive To take by selection; to choose out; to cite or quote, as a passage from a book.
11. v. transitive, arithmetic To determine (a root of a number).

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To draw out or forth; to pull out; to remove forcibly from a fixed position, as by traction or suction, etc..
2. v. To withdraw by expression, distillation, or other mechanical or chemical process. Cf. Abstract, v. t., 6.
3. v. To take by selection; to choose out; to cite or quote, as a passage from a book.
4. n. That which is extracted or drawn out.
5. n. A portion of a book or document, separately transcribed; a citation; a quotation.
6. n. A decoction, solution, or infusion made by dissolving out from any substance that which gives it its essential and characteristic virtue; essence; ; also, any substance so extracted, and characteristic of that from which it is obtained.
7. n. (Med.) A solid preparation obtained by evaporating a solution of a drug, etc., or the fresh juice of a plant; -- distinguished from an abstract. See Abstract, n., 4.
8. n. (Old Chem.), obsolete A peculiar principle once erroneously supposed to form the basis of all vegetable extracts; -- called also the extractive principle.
9. n. obsolete Extraction; descent.
10. n. (Scots Law) A draught or copy of writing; certified copy of the proceedings in an action and the judgement therein, with an order for execution.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. get despite difficulties or obstacles
2. v. take out of a literary work in order to cite or copy
3. v. remove, usually with some force or effort; also used in an abstract sense
4. v. separate (a metal) from an ore
5. n. a passage selected from a larger work
6. v. obtain from a substance, as by mechanical action
7. v. extract by the process of distillation
8. v. calculate the root of a number
9. n. a solution obtained by steeping or soaking a substance (usually in water)
10. v. deduce (a principle) or construe (a meaning)