English

Noun

extract ‎(plural extracts)

1. Something that is extracted or drawn out.
2. A portion of a book or document, incorporated distinctly in another work; a citation; a quotation.

   I used an extract of Hemingway's book to demonstrate culture shock.

3. A decoction, solution, or infusion made by drawing out from any substance that which gives it its essential and characteristic virtue;

   extract of beef

   extract of dandelion

4. 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.

5. A solid preparation obtained by evaporating a solution of a drug, etc., or the fresh juice of a plant (distinguished from an abstract).
6. (obsolete) A peculiar principle (fundamental essence) once erroneously supposed to form the basis of all vegetable extracts.
7. Ancestry; descent.
8. A draft or copy of writing; a certified copy of the proceedings in an action and the judgment therein, with an order for execution.

Synonyms

• (that which is extracted): extraction
• (principle): extractive principle
• (ancestry, descent): origin, extraction

Derived terms

• yeast extract

See also

• tincture

Translations

Verb

extract ‎(third-person singular simple present extracts, present participle extracting, simple past and past participle extracted)

1. (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

   • Milton

     The bee / Sits on the bloom extracting liquid sweet.

   • 2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

     The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).

2. (transitive) To withdraw by expression, distillation, or other mechanical or chemical process. Compare abstract (transitive verb).

   to extract an essential oil from a plant

   • 2013 June 29, “A punch in the gut”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 72-3:

     Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.

3. (transitive) To take by selection; to choose out; to cite or quote, as a passage from a book.
   • Jonathan Swift

     I have extracted out of that pamphlet a few notorious falsehoods.

4. (transitive) To select parts of a whole

   We need to try to extract the positives from the defeat.

5. (transitive, arithmetic) To determine (a root of a number).

   Please extract the cube root of 27.‎

Synonyms

• (to take by selection) sunder out

Translations