Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To release from an entanglement or difficulty; disengage.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • 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.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To free, as from difficulties or perplexities; to disentangle; to disembarrass
  • transitive verb To cause to be emitted or evolved.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To free, disengage, loosen, or untangle.
  • verb rare To free from intricacies or perplexity

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb release from entanglement of difficulty

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin extrīcāre, extrīcāt- : ex-, ex- + trīcae, hindrances, perplexities.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin extricatus, past participle of extricō.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word extricate.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • "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.

    October 29, 2008