Definition of "extract"

extract

/ˈɛkstɹækt/

noun
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.
3. A decoction, solution, or infusion made by drawing out from any substance that which gives it its essential and characteristic virtue
4. Any substance extracted is such a way, and characteristic of that from which it is obtained
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.
verb
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.
  Quotations
  The bee / Sits on the bloom extracting liquid sweet.
  1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
  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).
  2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847
2. (transitive) To withdraw by squeezing, distillation, or other mechanical or chemical process. Compare abstract (transitive verb).
  Quotations
  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.
  2013 June 29, “A punch in the gut”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, pages 72–3
3. (transitive) To choose out; to cite or quote, for example a passage from a text.
  Quotations
  I have thought it proper to extract out of that pamphlet a few of those notorious falsehoods.
  1724, Jonathan Swift, “Drapier's Letters”, in 4
  As his work is probably not easily accessible to many of my readers, I shall perhaps consult their convenience by extracting his description entire.
  1900, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 2, page 332
4. (transitive) To select parts of a whole
5. (transitive, arithmetic) To determine (a root of a number).
  Quotations
  […] Mr. Nackybal was thoroughly examined, both in cubing and extracting, from the table that Louit had provided.
  1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, Olympia Press