Cash value can come out two ways, and people use the words interchangeably. They aren't the same transaction.
A loan borrows from the carrier using your cash value as collateral. The cash value stays in the policy and keeps earning. The loan accrues interest, and the outstanding balance reduces the death benefit until it's paid. Nothing leaves permanently, and a loan isn't a taxable event as long as the policy stays in force.
A withdrawal, sometimes called a partial surrender, takes the money out. Cash value drops by the amount withdrawn and doesn't come back unless you put it back in, which the contract may not allow. The death benefit usually drops too, and on some designs it drops by more than the amount you took.
Taxes are where the split gets sharp. Withdrawals come out basis first, so you can generally pull what you paid in premiums tax-free, and anything above your basis is taxable as ordinary income. Loans carry no tax at all while the policy is in force. That's the reason retirement income strategies out of a policy switch to loans once basis is used up.
A common approach uses both. Withdraw up to basis, then switch to loans for anything past that. It gets money out tax free without accruing loan interest on the first part. The trade-off is that the withdrawal permanently shrinks the policy, so the later loans have less cash value standing behind them.
Two things to check before either move. Whether the policy is a modified endowment contract, because MEC rules flip the withdrawal order to income first and add a 10% penalty before 59 and a half. And what a withdrawal does to your death benefit under your specific death benefit option, since option A and option B handle it differently. I'm a licensed insurance broker rather than a CPA, so run the tax side by your preparer before the money moves.