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Diminish vs Extract - What's the difference?

diminish | extract |

In lang=en terms the difference between diminish and extract

is that diminish is to disappear gradually while extract is to take by selection; to choose out; to cite or quote, as a passage from a book.

As verbs the difference between diminish and extract

is that diminish is to make smaller while extract is to draw out or forth; to pull out; to remove forcibly from a fixed position, as by traction or suction, etc.

As a noun extract is

that which is extracted or drawn out.

diminish

English

Verb

(es)
  • To make smaller.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-12-14
    • , author=Simon Jenkins, authorlink=Simon Jenkins, volume=188, issue=2, page=23 , date=2012-12-21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= We mustn't overreact to North Korea boys' toys , passage=The threat of terrorism to the British lies in the overreaction to it of British governments. Each one in turn clicks up the ratchet of surveillance, intrusion and security. Each one diminishes liberty.}}
  • To become smaller.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Old soldiers? , passage=Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine.
  • To lessen the authority or dignity of; to put down; to degrade; to abase; to weaken.
  • * Robynson (More's Utopia)
    • This doth nothing diminish their opinion.
  • * Bible, Ezekiel xxix. 15
    • I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.
  • * Milton
    • O thou at whose sight all the stars / Hide their diminished heads.
  • To taper.
  • To disappear gradually.
  • To take away; to subtract.
  • * Bible, Deuteronomy iv. 2
    • Neither shall ye diminish aught from it.
  • (music) To reduce a perfect or minor interval by a semitone.

    • Derived terms

    * law of diminishing returns

    extract

    English

    (wikipedia extract)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • That which is extracted or drawn out.
  • A portion of a book or document, incorporated distinctly in another work; a citation; a quotation.
  • 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.
  • A solid preparation obtained by evaporating a solution of a drug, etc., or the fresh juice of a plant; -- distinguished from an abstract.
  • (obsolete) A peculiar principle (fundamental essence) once erroneously supposed to form the basis of all vegetable extracts; -- called also the extractive principle.
  • Ancestry; descent.
  • A draft or copy of writing; a certified copy of the proceedings in an action and the judgment therein, with an order for execution.

    • Synonyms

    * (that which is extracted) extraction * origin, extraction

    Derived terms

    * yeast extract

    See also

    * tincture

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To draw out or forth; to pull out; to remove forcibly from a fixed position, as by traction or suction, etc.
    • to extract a tooth from its socket, a stump from the earth, or a splinter from the finger
  • * Milton
    • The bee / Sits on the bloom extracting liquid sweet.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Yesterday’s fuel , passage=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).}}
  • To withdraw by expression, distillation, or other mechanical or chemical process. Compare abstract (transitive verb).
    • to extract an essential oil from a plant
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=72-3, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= A punch in the gut , passage=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.}}
  • To take by selection; to choose out; to cite or quote, as a passage from a book.
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • I have extracted out of that pamphlet a few notorious falsehoods.
  • (arithmetic) To determine (a root of a number).

    • Synonyms

    * (to take by selection) (l)