extrication

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the act or process of freeing someone or something from entanglement, confinement, or a difficult situation

   Her extrication from the complex contract required months of negotiation.

2. 2
   noun

   the emergency rescue of a person trapped in a vehicle, machine, or collapsed structure

   Firefighters completed the driver's extrication without worsening his injuries.

From extricate plus -ion. Extricate comes from Latin extricare, 'to disentangle or free,' formed from ex-, 'out of,' and tricae, 'hindrances or entanglements.' The specialized rescue sense applies the same idea to physically trapped people.

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