stake a claim

Idioms

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.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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

With Hartley, nine years Dawson's junior, in the ODI squad, he has the first chance to stake a claim for a place at the 50-over World Cup in 2027.

From BBC • May 27, 2025

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

With that, he became the first person to legally stake a claim to his own tissue and sue for profits and damages.

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023