When you remove an element from an edit sequence gesturally, the effect depends on whether Ripple is on or off. When Ripple is off, you lift an element, leaving a gap in place of the lifted element.

When Ripple is on, you extract an element, and the edit sequence collapses to fill the gap left by the extracted element. This is also called a ripple delete.

You can lift or extract elements from the timeline independently of the Ripple mode using the contextual menu or keyboard shortcuts.
To lift or extract an element from using the contextual menu:
To gesturally remove an element from an edit sequence: