Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To release from an entanglement or difficulty; disengage.
- v. Archaic To distinguish from something related.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To disentangle; disengage; free: as, to extricate one from a perilous or embarrassing situation; to extricate one's self from debt.
- To set loose or free; evolve; excrete.
- Synonyms Disentangle, etc. (see disengage); relieve, deliver, set free.
- In entomology, extruded: applied to the ovipositor when the valves and vagina are entirely without the body, whether in use or not, as in many Ichneumonidæ.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To free, disengage, loosen, or untangle.
- v. rare To free from intricacies or perplexity
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To free, as from difficulties or perplexities; to disentangle; to disembarrass
- v. To cause to be emitted or evolved.
WordNet 3.0
- v. release from entanglement of difficulty
Etymologies
- From Latin extricatus, past participle of extricō. (Wiktionary)
- Latin extrīcāre, extrīcāt- : ex-, ex- + trīcae, hindrances, perplexities. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“COOPER: But using the word extricate, does that mean that you think U.S. troops should be out?”
“However, we had the pleasure of seeing everything safe at camp in the evening, except three or four of our poorest horses, which being unable to extricate from the snow, we were obliged to abandon to their fate.”
“Hillary Clinton said Sunday that 'President Bush has made a mess of Iraq and it is his responsibility to' extricate 'the United States from the situation before he leaves office,' reports the AP.”
OpEdNews - Quicklink: Hillary Clinton Urges President Not to Pass the Buck on Iraq
“Princeiso said a royal peace and development programme was planned to reach out to traditional chiefs, "extricate" them from politics, and allow people displaced by violence to return to their communities.”
“It is difficult to "extricate" the meaning of lines 19-25, but, perhaps, they are intended to convey a hope of immortality.”
“William John Davis today told the District Court he had turned his life around, kicked his drug habit and begun to "extricate" himself from the outlaw club.”
“The original story was the wife used the golf club to smash the window to "extricate" Woods from the car?”
OpEdNews - OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion
“Neither revenue increases nor spending cuts alone could extricate us from this deficit crisis.”
Voice of America: Ideological Rift Drives US Budget Standoff
“And if you do extricate yourself for a few moments from all devices luminous, does your shoulder devil soon whisper you back to a screen?”
“It took me a good 5 minutes to extricate that buck from that heap of dead branches and thorns.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘extricate’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1847 more...
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ChortleGiggleSnort
Significant Words- Guiding you on your path to Snazzibility
flimsy, feeble, ranting, ramble, narky, snazzy, yoghurt, bulbous, pustule, globulous, geranium, megalomaniac and 521 more...
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Words
My list of words.
veritable, facetious, nadir, quixotic, apropos, acquiesce, ostensible, insipid, egregious, inveterate, coax, adroit and 409 more...
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Magoosh GRE
its a list of words borrowed from Magoosh GRE blog ,an indispensable resource for GRE test takers.
inimitable, exiguity, myriad, cornucopia, surfeit, glut, deluge, opaque, pellucid, grandiloquent, turgid, gadfly and 106 more...
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kalidas's Words
crepuscular, mellifluous, ephemeral, diaphanous, zeitgeist, geisterfahrer, infinite, eternal, idyllic, azure, reminiscent, oblivion and 521 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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quality words
This is a mix of new words I've read studying for the GRE verbal and words I use normally. I also check back on these words if I don't use them often enough.
ineffable, septuagenarian, sesquipedalian, argyle, coalescence, profundity, vivisepulture, defenestrate, concatenate, usurp, diatribe, veracious and 461 more...
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cuzican's Words
lexicon, tirade, innocuous, apathy, narcissist, subtle, agnostic, plethora, malleable, catalyst, pithy, irate and 116 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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The Ex-acting Xray
Out of this world via the "X-express".
exorbitant, exuberant, extant, exultant, expectorate, exhilarate, excommunicate, exacting, extenuate, exculpate, extirpate, expostulate and 110 more...
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wanderstar's Words
superlative, mulish, mumps, catatonic, aquiline, clandestine, phantasmagoria, chryselephantine, microfiche, mutineer, reprobate, ruthless and 312 more...
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samuraizack's Words
floccinaucinihili..., pneumonoultramicr..., bombastic, existentialistic, velocipede, aglet, anatomical snuffbox, wonk, tang, funambulist, quakebuttock, flews and 390 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for extricate.

bilby "My mom has worked in the same factory for more than 30 years. Along with about a hundred others, some immigrants from Southeast Asia, she makes small motors that can be used in dialysis machines, rotating advertising signs, or those amusement park games where you maneuver a metal claw hoping to extricate a small fuzzy animal."
- Robert Eshelman, 'Meeting Myself in Bucks County', 28 Oct 2008. Oct 29, 2008