stake a claim

Idioms  

1. Also, stake out a claim. Indicate something as one's own, as in I'm staking a claim to the drumstick, or She staked out a claim for herself in the insurance business. This term, dating from the mid-1800s, originally meant “register a claim to land by marking it with stakes.” It was being used figuratively by the late 1800s.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

stake a claim

That means over the next few days, Vijay will need to change from crowd-puller to coalition-builder, negotiating with smaller parties and independent legislators to cross the threshold and stake a claim to power.

From BBC ● May 5, 2026

Such a network of rivers, if it existed, would revolutionize America’s trading system and help the nation stake a claim to the contested and uncharted areas west of the Rockies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026

"Judging accurately is almost impossible. As long as we haven't solved that issue, it will be difficult" to stake a claim for the Olympics.

From Barron's ● Feb. 22, 2026

It was a statement that preemptively denied the country music industry the opportunity to stake a claim on her work while also indicating that she had found a creative path around the genre’s confines.

From New York Times ● Mar. 26, 2024

They wanted to feel the superiority and invincibility that had once been theirs, to stake a claim once again to Friday night.

From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger