Reclaim Definition

rĭ-klām
reclaimed, reclaiming, reclaims
verb
reclaimed, reclaiming, reclaims
To demand the restoration or return of (a possession, for example); claim again or back.
We reclaimed our bags at the hotel desk.
American Heritage
To make (wasteland, desert, etc.) capable of being cultivated or lived on, as by filling, ditching, or irrigating.
Webster's New World
To require or deserve again.
The movie reclaimed my attention.
American Heritage
To bring into or return to a suitable condition for use, as cultivation or habitation.
Reclaim marshlands; reclaim strip-mined land.
American Heritage
To rescue or bring back (a person or people) from error, vice, etc. to ways of living or thinking regarded as right; reform.
Webster's New World
noun
reclaims
Restoration to a previous or reformed state.
A life beyond reclaim.
American Heritage
Reclamation.
Beyond reclaim.
Webster's New World
An effort to take something back, to reclaim something.
Wiktionary

Origin of Reclaim

  • Middle English reclamen to call back from Old French reclamer to entreat from Latin reclāmāre re- re- clāmāre to cry out kelə-2 in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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

    From Wiktionary

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