extract definition

English extract definition

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin extractum, neuter perfect passive participle of extrahō.

Pronunciation

• (noun): enPR: ĕks'trăkt, IPA^(key): /ˈɛkstɹækt/

  • Audio (UK)

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• (verb): enPR: ĭkstrăkt', IPA^(key): /ɪksˈtɹækt/, IPA^(key): /ɛksˈtɹækt/

  • Audio (US)

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  • Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -ækt

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

   vanilla extract

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; See also Thesaurus:decrement
• (principle): extractive principle
• (ancestry, descent): origin, extraction

Derived terms

• yeast extract

Translations

See also

• tincture

Verb

extract (third-person singular simple present extracts, present participle extracting, simple past extracted, past participle extracted or (archaic) extraught)

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

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     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.
   • 1724, Jonathan Swift, Drapier's Letters, 4

     I have thought it proper to extract out of that pamphlet a few of those 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.

   • 1935, Samuel Beckett, Watt:

     […] Mr. Nackybal was thoroughly examined, both in cubing and extracting, from the table that Louit had provided.

Synonyms

• (to draw out): outdraw
• (to take by selection): sunder out

Translations

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Dutch extract definition

Etymology

From Middle Dutch extract, from Latin extractum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛksˈtrɑkt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ex‧tract
• Rhymes: -ɑkt

Noun

extract n (plural extracten)

1. extract, decoction

   Synonym: aftreksel

2. (obsolete) abridgement of a text

   Synonym: uittreksel

Derived terms

• plantenextract
• thee-extract

Descendants

• → Indonesian: ekstrak

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Romanian extract definition

Etymology

From Latin extractus.

Noun

extract n (plural extracte)

1. extract

Declension