[n. of action f. L. extrīcāre: see prec. and -ATION.]
1. The action of extricating or disentangling: disentanglement from an involved situation, from difficulty or perplexity.
1650. B., Discolliminium, 45. I and my Friends shall be allowed the full benefit of all the … extrications … that I and my Mare can devise.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 62, ¶ 3. Too … embarrassed to think much on any thing but the means of extrication.
1854. Bright, Sp. (1876), 275. A people whose extrication from ignorance and poverty can only be hoped for from the continuance of peace.
1854. H. Rogers, Ess. (1860), II. 27. Immense is the difficulty attending the clear extrication and expression of truth in intellectual philosophy.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxvii. 361. I owed my extrication at last to a newly-broken team-dog.
b. Escape from the egg; hatching.
1797. Bewick, Brit. Birds (1847), I. 331. Young Turkies, after their Extrication from the shell, are very tender.
1866. Owen, Anat. Vertebrates, I. xii. § 119. 623. After extrication, the tadpole rapidly grows.
2. Chem. The action or process of setting free (an element, gas, etc.) from something containing it; = EVOLUTION 3. Now rare.
a. 1691. Boyle, Producibleness Spirits, II. iii. We may suppose it [acid spirit] to have been made rather by transmutation than extrication.
1790. Keir, in Phil. Trans., LXXX. 365. No extrication of gas appeared until [etc.].
1800. Henry, Epit. Chem. (1808), 144. Heat and vapour … accompanied … with an extrication of light.
1811. Abernethy, Surg. Wks., I. 39. The extrication of inflammable air.
1856. W. A. Miller, Elem. Chem., II. ii. § 286. Chemical action attended with extrication of light and heat.
