Other forms: extractions
In intelligence work, extraction is getting an agent out of a dangerous place. Plan the extraction, an extraction team, the extraction failed.
It is the counterpart of insertion, and both belong to the vocabulary of special operations and thrillers. Elsewhere, extraction is pulling something out: tooth extraction, the extraction of minerals, DNA extraction. Of a person's background it means descent: of Polish extraction. Note extract, both verb and noun; and that in cooking an extract is a concentrated flavour — vanilla extract.
1nounextractionGetting somebody out of a dangerous place.
“The extraction was planned for about four in the morning.”
2nounpullingThe pulling out of something.
“The dentist said the broken tooth needed an extraction.”
extraction is a drawing out.
Latin extractio comes from extrahere — ex-, out, plus trahere, to draw. Tractor, attract and abstract are the same verb, so an extraction is a drawing out in the plainest sense.
Medieval Latin
extractio
Old French
estraction
English, today
extraction
From Old French estraction, from Medieval Latin extractio.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Spying & Secrecy