1. To draw or pull out, often with great force or effort: Tom's dentist had to extract his wisdom tooth.

Tim's mother had to use tweezers to extract a splinter from his thumb.

2. To get something despite a resistance: Jack finally extracted a promise from his sister not to tell their parents that he had thrown a ball through the window by mistake!
3. To obtain from a substance by chemical or mechanical action; as, by pressure, distillation, or evaporation: In biology class at school, the students learned that caffeine could be extracted from coffee beans by a process known as water processing.
4. To remove for separate consideration or publication; to excerpt: A hacker was able to extract and transfer important data from Rebecca’s computer to his own.
5. To derive or to obtain information from a source or to deduce a principle or doctrine; to construe a meaning: Susan was hoping to extract some useful background data from the internet to include in her article for the newspaper.
6. To derive pleasure from some source or situation: Bob extracted so much enjoyment from reading his new book that he wanted to get another one by the same author.
7. Etymology: borrowed from French extraction; from Latin extractionem from extractio; from the stem of Latin extrahere, "to pull out"; from ex-, "out" + trahere, "to pull".