Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To demand the restoration or return of (a possession, for example); claim again or back.
- transitive verb To require or deserve again.
- transitive verb To bring into or return to a suitable condition for use, as cultivation or habitation.
- transitive verb To procure (usable substances) from refuse or waste products; recycle.
- transitive verb To bring back, as from error, to a right or proper course; reform. synonym: save.
- transitive verb To use or reinterpret (a historically derogatory name or term) in a positive way, as in pride for one's social group.
- transitive verb To tame (a falcon, for example).
- noun Restoration to a previous or reformed state.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The act of reclaiming, or the state of being reclaimed, in any sense; reclamation; recall; restoration; reformation.
- To cry out; exclaim against something.
- In Scots law, to appeal from a judgment of the lord ordinary to the inner house of the Court of Session.
- To draw back; give way.
- To effect reformation.
- To cry out against; contradict; gainsay.
- To call back; call upon to return; recall; urge backward.
- To claim the return or restoration of; demand renewed possession of; attempt to regain: as, to
reclaim one's rights or property. - To effect the return or restoration of; get back or restore by effort; regain; recover.
- In falconry, to draw back; recover.
- To bring under restraint or within close limits; check; restrain; hold back.
- To draw back from error or wrong-doing; bring to a proper state of mind; reform.
- To bring to a subdued or ameliorated state; make amenable to control or use; reduce to obedience, as a wild animal; tame; subdue; also, to fit for cultivation, as wild or marshy land.
- To call or cry out again; repeat the utterance of; sound back; reverberate.
- Synonyms and To recover, regain, restore, amend, correct.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To cry out in opposition or contradiction; to exclaim against anything; to contradict; to take exceptions.
- intransitive verb To bring anyone back from evil courses; to reform.
- intransitive verb R. & Obs. To draw back; to give way.
- transitive verb To claim back; to demand the return of as a right; to attempt to recover possession of.
- noun obsolete The act of reclaiming, or the state of being reclaimed; reclamation; recovery.
- transitive verb To call back, as a hawk to the wrist in falconry, by a certain customary call.
- transitive verb To call back from flight or disorderly action; to call to, for the purpose of subduing or quieting.
- transitive verb To reduce from a wild to a tamed state; to bring under discipline; -- said especially of birds trained for the chase, but also of other animals.
- transitive verb Hence: To reduce to a desired state by discipline, labor, cultivation, or the like; to rescue from being wild, desert, waste, submerged, or the like
- transitive verb To call back to rectitude from moral wandering or transgression; to draw back to correct deportment or course of life; to reform.
- transitive verb obsolete To correct; to reform; -- said of things.
- transitive verb obsolete To exclaim against; to gainsay.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To
return land to a suitablecondition for use. - verb transitive To obtain
useful products fromwaste ; torecycle . - verb transitive To return someone to a proper course of action; to
reform . - verb transitive To
claim somethingback ; torepossess . - verb transitive To
tame ordomesticate awild animal . - noun obsolete, falconry The calling back of a
hawk . - noun obsolete The bringing back or
recalling of a person; the fetching of someone back. - noun An effort to take something back, to reclaim something.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb claim back
- verb bring, lead, or force to abandon a wrong or evil course of life, conduct, and adopt a right one
- verb make useful again; transform from a useless or uncultivated state
- verb reuse (materials from waste products)
- verb overcome the wildness of; make docile and tractable
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Will Elbow's new album title reclaim grammar's least-loved piece of punctuation from Facebook commenters and literary snobs?
From Help! to Build A Rocket Boys!, exclamation marks rock! 2011
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I once believed the Clintons were do-gooders, and I think to some point they are, but I think it all is part of a hidden agenda, and Hilary & Bill will do anything to once again reclaim power.
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After the influence of the heretics in Poland had been destroyed, the Society of Jesus resolved to reclaim from the Greek schism the millions of inhabitants of
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 12: Philip II-Reuss 1840-1916 1913
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After this poor Jack Robinson fell into low spirits for a time, but he soon recovered, and bought a small piece of land at a nominal price in a region so wild that he had to cut his own road to it, fell the trees with his own hand, and, in short, reclaim it from the wilderness on the margin of which it lay.
Fort Desolation Red Indians and Fur Traders of Rupert's Land 1859
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Not really helpful to create a situation where women are just as uncomfortable with pressure to reclaim a word as they were with the word itself.
The S-word 2009
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That means that women need to either new to create a new word for positive women sexuality or reclaim a word.
Archive 2009-01-01 2009
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Here is the essence of being able to reclaim a word.
The S-word 2009
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That means that women need to either new to create a new word for positive women sexuality or reclaim a word.
The S-word 2009
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Parents 'reclaim' children in Haiti abduction-adoption row
February 2nd, 2010 ladyjax 2010
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Cities all over the world have been trying to "reclaim" coastlines for the last couple decades.
Todd Reisz and Rory Hyde: Reclaim Bahrain Todd Reisz 2010
hernesheir commented on the word reclaim
4. To tame (a falcon, for example). - American Heritage Dictionary.
April 11, 2011