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.comExamples from the Web for reclaimer
Historical Examples
But what difference did it really make, after the sanitary distillation of a reclaimer?
The Planet StrappersRaymond Zinke Gallun
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 reclaimer
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.