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 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.
• 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.

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