Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To demand, ask for, or take as one's own or one's due.
  • transitive verb To take in a violent manner as if by right.
  • transitive verb To state to be true, especially when open to question; assert or maintain.
  • transitive verb To deserve or call for; require.
  • noun A demand for something as rightful or due.
  • noun A basis for demanding something; a title or right.
  • noun Something claimed in a formal or legal manner, especially a tract of public land staked out by a miner or homesteader.
  • noun A demand for payment in accordance with an insurance policy or other formal arrangement.
  • noun The sum of money demanded.
  • noun A statement of something as a fact; an assertion of truth.
  • idiom (lay claim to) To assert one's right to or ownership of.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To stick; paste: as, to claim up an advertisement.
  • To clog; overload.
  • noun A cry; a call, as for aid.
  • noun A demand of a right or alleged right; a calling on another for something due or asserted to be due: as, a claim of wages for services.
  • noun A right to claim or demand; a just title to something in one's own possession or in the possession or at the disposal of another.
  • noun The thing claimed or demanded; specifically, a piece of public land which a squatter or settler marks out for himself with the intention of purchasing it when the government offers it for sale: as, he staked out a claim.
  • noun Hence A piece of land obtained in this manner; specifically, in mining, the portion of mineral ground held by an individual or an association in accordance with the local mining-laws of the district.
  • To call; call out; cry out.
  • To be entitled to a thing; have a right; derive a right; especially, to derive a right by descent.
  • To assert, a claim; put forward a claim.
  • To assert a belief or an opinion; maintain; assert.
  • To proclaim.
  • To call or name.
  • To ask or demand by virtue of a right or asserted right to the possession of the thing demanded, or of authority to demand it; demand as a right or as due; assert a right to: as, to claim obedience or respect; to claim an estate by descent; to claim payment: with from or of before the person on whom the claim is made.
  • To hold or maintain as a fact or as true; assert as a fact, or as one's own belief or opinion: as, I claim that he is right.
  • Synonyms Request, Beg, etc. See ask.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To be entitled to anything; to deduce a right or title; to have a claim.
  • transitive verb To ask for, or seek to obtain, by virtue of authority, right, or supposed right; to challenge as a right; to demand as due.
  • transitive verb obsolete To proclaim.
  • transitive verb obsolete To call or name.
  • transitive verb colloq. To assert; to maintain.
  • noun A demand of a right or supposed right; a calling on another for something due or supposed to be due; an assertion of a right or fact.
  • noun A right to claim or demand something; a title to any debt, privilege, or other thing in possession of another; also, a title to anything which another should give or concede to, or confer on, the claimant.
  • noun U.S. & Australia The thing claimed or demanded; that (as land) to which any one intends to establish a right; .
  • noun obsolete A loud call.
  • noun to demand as a right.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A demand of ownership made for something (eg. claim ownership, claim victory).
  • noun A new statement of truth made about something, usually when the statement has yet to be verified.
  • noun A demand of ownership for previously unowned land (eg. in the gold rush, oil rush)
  • noun law A legal demand for compensation or damages.
  • verb To demand ownership of.
  • verb To state a new fact, typically without providing evidence to prove it is true.
  • verb To demand ownership or right to use for land.
  • verb law To demand compensation or damages through the courts.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an assertion that something is true or factual
  • noun an informal right to something
  • noun demand for something as rightful or due
  • verb assert or affirm strongly; state to be true or existing

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English claimen, from Old French clamer, claim-, from Latin clāmāre, to call; see kelə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English claimen, from Old French claimer, clamer ("to call, name, send for"), from Latin clāmō ("to call, cry out"), connected with calō ("to call"), cognate to Ancient Greek καλέω (kaleō, "to call, convoke").

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