抜く goes on a verb's ます-stem and means carrying the action through to the end in spite of difficulty: running the whole race, enduring the whole ordeal, not giving up. It conjugates as a う-verb: , , .
よんに42。
I ran the entire 42-kilometer marathon.
。
They fought all the way through without giving up.
。
I endured the rigorous training to the very end.
、。
No matter how tough it gets, I intend to see it through to the end.
The verb is in the ます-stem: ×耐える抜いた. Since the point is usually that the hard part is over, you meet it most in the past, ～抜いた.
Thinking something through
On verbs of thinking, worrying and knowing, 抜く means "thoroughly", "as far as it goes": you thought until there was nothing left to think, you know every corner of something. The stress here is on depth rather than on enduring a hardship.
、。
After thinking it over thoroughly for days, I decided to change jobs.
、。
After agonizing over it for a long time, I decided to study abroad.
。
He knows this industry inside and out.
抜く or 切る
on a ます-stem says the action is finished with nothing left over. 抜く says you held out through something hard. Eating a whole cake is 切る; there is no struggle to see through.
。
I ate the whole cake by myself.
。
He came through a long illness.
On verbs of tiredness the same split holds: "utterly exhausted" is , not ×疲れ抜く.
Not this pattern
"overtake" and
"pull out", "headhunt" keep the literal meaning of 抜く, "pull out" or "get ahead of". They are words of their own, not "do to the end".
。
I overtook the car in front.
Lingaku