The culling or excerpting of the flowers or finest parts of a book; a selection of choice passages.

In early use: the selective (sometimes expedient) extraction and reporting of information from a document or statement. Later: the act or process of…

The action of excerpt, v.; an instance of it.

The action of excerpting, making selections from (a book, manuscript, etc.).

The action of extracting or copying out (a passage) from a book, etc.