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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Extract

Ex-trāct', v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. EXTRACTED: p. pr. & vb. n. EXTRACTING.] [Lat. extrahere, extractum, from ex, out of, from, and trahere, to draw; Sp. extraer, Pg. extrahir, Pr. estraire, It. estrarre, Fr. extraire.]

Sense 1. To draw out; to withdraw.

The bee Sits on the bloom extracting liquid sweets. Milton.

Sense 2. To remove forcibly from a fixed position; as, to extract a tooth from its socket, a stump from the earth, a splinter from the finger, and the like.

Sense 3. To withdraw by distillation, or other chemical process; as, to extract an essence.

Sunbeams may be extracted from cucumbers, but the process is tedious. Swift.

Sense 4. To take by selection; to choose out, as a passage from a book.

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

To extract the root (Math.), to ascertain the root of a number or quantity.

Ex'tract, n.

noun

n. [Lat. extractum, from extractus, p. p. of extrahere; Sp. & Pg. extracto, Pr. estrat, It. estratto, Fr. extrait.]

Sense 1. That which is extracted or drawn out.

Sense 2. A passage taken from a book or writing; an excerpt; a citation; a quotation.

Sense 3. Any thing drawn from a substance by heat, solution, distillation, or chemical process, as essences, tinctures, and the like.

Sense 4. (Chem.) A peculiar principle, once erroneously supposed to form the basis of all vegetable extracts; — called also the extractive principle.

Sense 5. Extraction; descent. [Obs.] South.

Sense 6. (Scots Law.) A draught or copy of a writing; certified copy of the proceedings in an action and the judgment therein, with an order for execution. Tomlins.