Literary notes about Extract (AI summary)
The word “extract” in literature is employed with considerable versatility, functioning both in literal and metaphorical senses. In some instances, it denotes the literal removal or concentration of a substance—whether extracting dye from plant material ([1]), the potency of a medicinal plant ([2], [3]), or even physical contents from a container ([4], [5])—highlighting a tangible process of separation. In other contexts, it refers to the selection or distillation of a passage or idea, as seen when authors present a segment from a larger work ([6], [7], [8]) or when characters strive to draw a hidden meaning from ambiguous expressions ([9], [10]). This dual usage encapsulates both the physical act of drawing out essential components and the intellectual process of isolating key insights.
- From the root of the black briony they obtain a fine salve for sores, and extract a rich yellow dye.
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie - The total water extract of roasted coffee varies from 20 to 31 percent in different kinds of coffee.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - A proper dose of the alcoholic extract is 10 centigrams in 24 hours.
— from The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines by T. H. Pardo de Tavera - They were strewn at random all over the ground, and one tin of meat had been crushed into pieces so as to extract the contents.
— from The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle - When the tent has been prepared fill it with rubbed down mutton fat, and when ready extract the wooden dilator and insert the leaden one.’
— from Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times by John Stewart Milne - I will then shut up all this, being but an Extract of what is in the Prefatory part of the Original.
— from A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies by Bartolomé de las Casas - 29 Extract from a doctor's examination paper.— "What is the task of all higher schooling?"—To make man into a machine.
— from The Twilight of the Idols; or, How to Philosophize with the Hammer. The Antichrist by Nietzsche - An extract from Beowulf, with Latin translation.
— from Beowulf: An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem - Though I was angry with old Cotter for alluding to me as a child, I puzzled my head to extract meaning from his unfinished sentences.
— from Dubliners by James Joyce - But what is one to do in order to extract from science the secret of this general law?
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo
