reclaim
- to bring (uncultivated areas or wasteland) into a condition for cultivation or other use.
- to recover (substances) in a pure or usable form from refuse, discarded articles, etc.
- to bring back to a preferable manner of living, sound principles, ideas, etc.
- to tame.
- re-claim.
- to protest; object.
- reclamation: beyond reclaim.
Origin of reclaim
Synonyms
See more synonyms for reclaim on Thesaurus.comre-claim
- to claim or demand the return or restoration of, as a right, possession, etc.
- to claim again.
Origin of re-claim
Examples from the Web for reclaim
Contemporary Examples
Officials have said the war to reclaim upward of a third of Iraq and a quarter of Syria from ISIS could take years.
To reclaim it, he had to move beyond established conventions about how a literary career should be conducted.
When Gardner goes to Washington, will he reclaim his Tea Party roots and join hands with Texas Senator Ted Cruz?
Ohio is a must-win swing state for Republicans if they are to reclaim the White House.
In the face of these stereotypes, the Muslim Writers Collective is one attempt to reclaim the narrative of American Islam.
Historical Examples
Now, there is nothing a woman likes so much as to reclaim a man.
In the Midst of AlarmsRobert Barr
Yet it must be said too, that if there be a woman in the world that can reclaim him, it is you.
Clarissa, Volume 2 (of 9)Samuel Richardson
This man did his best to reclaim young Badman, and was particularly kind to him.
BunyanJames Anthony Froude
His friends at Government House, bewildered at this change in him, sought to reclaim him.
Captain BloodRafael Sabatini
I cannot tell how she feels toward him; I know she has often tried to reclaim him from his deviltry.
Whispering SmithFrank H. Spearman
reclaim
- to claim backto reclaim baggage
- to convert (desert, marsh, waste ground, etc) into land suitable for growing crops
- to recover (useful substances) from waste products
- to convert (someone) from sin, folly, vice, etc
- falconry to render (a hawk or falcon) tame
- the act of reclaiming or state of being reclaimed
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for reclaim
v.
early 14c., "call back a hawk to the glove," from Old French reclamer "to call upon, invoke; claim; seduce; to call back a hawk" (12c.) and directly from Latin reclamare "cry out against, contradict, protest, appeal," from re- "opposite, against" (see re-) + clamare "cry out" (see claim (v.)).
"Call back a hawk," hence "to make tame" (mid-15c.), "subdue, reduce to obedience, make amenable to control" (late 14c.). In many Middle English uses with no sense of return or reciprocation. Meaning "revoke" (a grant, gift, etc.) is from late 15c. That of "recall (someone) from an erring course to a proper state" is mid-15c. Sense of "get back by effort" might reflect influence of claim. Meaning "bring waste land into useful condition fit for cultivation" first attested 1764, probably on notion of "reduce to obedience." Related: Reclaimed; reclaiming.