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

I own as I do not, although I stake a claim on a pretty decent fashion sense, on account of my longstanding friendship with a certain party by the name of Joe Bunch.

From "The Misfits" by James Howe

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