Other forms: extracted, extracts, extracting
To extract something is to get it out, and it takes force or patience. A dentist extracting a wisdom tooth; a press squeezing oil out of olives; a lawyer extracting an answer from a witness who would rather not give one.
The noun moves the stress: you ex-TRACT a tooth, but you read an EX-tract. An extract is a short passage lifted out of a book, a speech or a film. It is also a concentrated substance pressed or boiled out of a plant — vanilla extract, malt extract, yeast extract. You extract data from a file, a promise from a friend, a confession from a suspect. The noun for the act is extraction, which doubles as a word for the family you come from: she is of Polish extraction.
1verbextractTo remove something from where it is fixed, using force or effort.
“The dentist had to extract two teeth in one visit.”
2verbinformationTo get information, money or a promise out of someone who is unwilling to give it.
“Reporters could not extract a straight answer from the minister.”
3verbobtainTo obtain a substance from something by pressing, boiling or a chemical process.
“The factory extracts sugar from beet.”
4nounshortA short passage taken from a book, a speech or a recording.
“The exam paper opened with an extract from a nineteenth-century novel.”
5nounconcentratedA concentrated substance drawn out of a plant or a food.
“Add a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the batter.”
Also accepted in games: pull out
Extract is Latin extractum, the participle of extrahō — ex-, out, plus trahō, to drag or pull, the same trah- sitting inside tractor and traction. English took the word over whole, and it has meant pull out from the first day it arrived.
Latin
extractum
English, today
extract
Borrowed from Latin extractum, neuter perfect passive participle of extrahō, from ex- + trahō.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA