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 suitable condition for use.
  • verb transitive To obtain useful products from waste; to recycle.
  • verb transitive To return someone to a proper course of action; to reform.
  • verb transitive To claim something back; to repossess.
  • verb transitive To tame or domesticate a wild 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

[Middle English reclamen, to call back, from Old French reclamer, to entreat, from Latin reclāmāre : re-, re- + clāmāre, to cry out; see kelə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman reclaimer (noun recleim), Middle French reclamer (noun reclaim), from Latin reclāmāre.

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Examples

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Comments

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  • 4. To tame (a falcon, for example). - American Heritage Dictionary.

    April 11, 2011