extract

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• transitive verb To draw or pull out, often with great force or effort.
• transitive verb To obtain despite resistance.
• transitive verb To obtain from a substance by chemical or mechanical action, as by pressure, distillation, or evaporation.
• transitive verb To remove for separate consideration or publication; excerpt.
• transitive verb To derive or obtain (information, for example) from a source.
• transitive verb To deduce (a principle or doctrine); construe (a meaning).
• transitive verb To derive (pleasure or comfort) from an experience.
• transitive verb Mathematics To determine or calculate (the root of a number).
• noun Something extracted, especially.
• noun A passage from a literary work; an excerpt.
• noun A concentrated preparation of the essential constituents of a food, flavoring, or other substance; a concentrate.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To draw out; withdraw; take or get out; pull out or remove from a fixed position, literally or figuratively.
• To separate or eliminate, as a constituent part from the whole, as by distillation or heat, or other chemical or physical means: as, to extract spirit from cane-juice, or salt from sea-water.
• Hence Figuratively, to obtain as if by distillation or chemical action; draw or bring out by some process: as, to extract pleasure from a quiet life; to extract instruction from adversity.
• To pick out or select; segregate, as from a collection, or from a book or writing.
• noun Shoddy or loose wool fiber, obtained by tearing apart old cloth, from which the cotton or other vegetable fiber has been removed by means of acids and heat.
• noun That which is extracted or drawn out.
• noun Anything drawn from a substance by distillation, heat, solution, or other chemical or physical process, as an essence or tincture.
• noun Hence A concentration of the principles or elements of anything; a condensed embodiment or representation.
• noun In chem., a peculiar principle once supposed to form the basis of all vegetable extracts. Also called the extractive principle.
• noun In lit., a passage taken from a book or writing; an excerpt; a citation; a quotation.
• noun Extraction; descent; origin.
• noun In Scots law, a copy, authenticated by the proper officer, of a deed, writing, or other entry, the principal of which is in a public record, or a transcript of which taken from the principal has been preserved in a public record.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To draw out or forth; to pull out; to remove forcibly from a fixed position, as by traction or suction, etc..
• transitive verb To withdraw by expression, distillation, or other mechanical or chemical process. Cf. Abstract, v. t., 6.
• transitive verb To take by selection; to choose out; to cite or quote, as a passage from a book.
• transitive verb (Math.) to ascertain the root of a number or quantity.
• noun That which is extracted or drawn out.
• noun A portion of a book or document, separately transcribed; a citation; a quotation.
• noun A decoction, solution, or infusion made by dissolving out from any substance that which gives it its essential and characteristic virtue; essence; ; also, any substance so extracted, and characteristic of that from which it is obtained.
• noun (Med.) A solid preparation obtained by evaporating a solution of a drug, etc., or the fresh juice of a plant; -- distinguished from an abstract. See Abstract, n., 4.
• noun (Old Chem.), obsolete A peculiar principle once erroneously supposed to form the basis of all vegetable extracts; -- called also the extractive principle.
• noun obsolete Extraction; descent.
• noun (Scots Law) A draught or copy of writing; certified copy of the proceedings in an action and the judgement therein, with an order for execution.
• noun (Med.) a concentrated liquid preparation, containing a definite proportion of the active principles of a medicinal substance. At present a fluid gram of extract should represent a gram of the crude drug.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun That which is extracted or drawn out.
• noun A portion of a book or document, incorporated distinctly in another work; a citation; a quotation.
• noun A decoction, solution, or infusion made by drawing out from any substance that which gives it its essential and characteristic virtue; essence; as, extract of beef; extract of dandelion; also, any substance so extracted, and characteristic of that from which it is obtained; as, quinine is the most important extract of Peruvian bark.
• noun A solid preparation obtained by evaporating a solution of a drug, etc., or the fresh juice of a plant; -- distinguished from an abstract.
• noun obsolete A peculiar principle (fundamental essence) once erroneously supposed to form the basis of all vegetable extracts; -- called also the extractive principle.
• noun Ancestry; descent.
• noun A draft or copy of writing; a certified copy of the proceedings in an action and the judgment therein, with an order for execution.
• verb transitive To draw out or forth; to pull out; to remove forcibly from a fixed position, as by traction or suction, etc.; as, to extract a tooth from its socket, a stump from the earth, a splinter from the finger.
• verb transitive To withdraw by expression, distillation, or other mechanical or chemical process; as, to extract an essence. Compare abstract, transitive verb.
• verb transitive To take by selection; to choose out; to cite or quote, as a passage from a book.
• verb transitive, arithmetic To determine (a root of a number).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb get despite difficulties or obstacles
• verb take out of a literary work in order to cite or copy
• verb remove, usually with some force or effort; also used in an abstract sense