Literary notes about extricate (AI summary)
In literature, the term "extricate" is frequently employed to denote the act of freeing oneself or another from a confining, entangled, or perilous situation. It is used literally in passages where characters struggle to escape physical traps or labyrinthine circumstances—for instance, a heroine trying to find her way out of a maze-like predicament ([1]) or someone trapped beneath a whale-boat ([2]). At the same time, authors use the word metaphorically to depict the challenge of disentangling oneself from emotional or intellectual quandaries, such as the dire need to overcome personal, social, or philosophical bind ([3], [4]). Moreover, its application spans both high-stakes military scenarios and everyday hardships, where the process of extrication becomes a critical turning point in a character’s narrative, as seen when an individual must extricate himself using sheer determination ([5], [6]).
- How could she extricate herself from this labyrinth?
— from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - It appeared afterward that he had crawled into a hole beneath a whale-boat, from which, not having room to turn round, he could not extricate himself.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - The two great philosophers of Hellas sought to extricate themselves from this cruel condition of human life, but acquiesced in the necessity of it.
— from Laws by Plato - “We must extricate ourselves from this position.”
— from The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - “O my dear friend!” cries Jones, “I am so entangled with this woman, that I know not how to extricate myself.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding - The question was how best to extricate the army from its perilous position.
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by Frank Edgar Farley and George Lyman Kittredge
