claim

• claym (obsolete)

From Middle English claimen, borrowed from Old French clamer (“to call, name, send for”), from Latin clāmō, clāmāre (“to call, cry out”), from Proto-Indo-European *kele- (“to shout”), which is imitative; see also Lithuanian kalba (“language”), Old English hlōwan (“to low, make a noise like a cow”), Old High German halan (“to call”), Ancient Greek καλέω (kaléō, “to call, convoke”), κλεδον (kledon, “report, fame”), κέλαδος (kélados, “noise”), Middle Irish cailech (“cock”), Latin calō (“to call out, announce solemnly”), Sanskrit उषःकल (uṣaḥkala, “cock”, literally “dawn-calling”). Cognate with Spanish llamar and clamar.

• IPA^(key): /kleɪm/

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• Rhymes: -eɪm

claim (plural claims)

1. A demand of ownership made for something.

   a claim of ownership

   a claim of victory

2. The thing claimed.
3. The right or ground of demanding.

   You don't have any claim on my time, since I'm no longer your employee.

4. A new statement of something one believes to be the truth, usually when the statement has yet to be verified or without valid evidence provided.

   The company's share price dropped amid claims of accounting fraud.

5. A demand of ownership for previously unowned land.

   Miners had to stake their claims during the gold rush.

6. (law) A legal demand for compensation or damages.

• Demand ownership of land not previously owned. One usually stakes a claim.
• The legal sense. One usually makes a claim. See Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take

• → Afrikaans: kleim
• → Dutch: claimen

claim (third-person singular simple present claims, present participle claiming, simple past and past participle claimed)

1. To demand ownership of.
2. To state a new fact, typically without providing evidence to prove it is true.
3. To demand ownership or right to use for land.
4. (law) To demand compensation or damages through the courts.
5. (intransitive) To be entitled to anything; to deduce a right or title; to have a claim.
   • John Locke

     We must know how the first ruler, from whom anyone claims, came by his authority.

6. to cause the loss of (someone's life)

   The attacks claimed the lives of five people.

7. (archaic) To proclaim.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

8. (archaic) To call or name.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

• claimable
• claimant
• claimer
• disclaim
• disclaimer

• claim in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• claim in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• malic

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claim

1. first-person singular present indicative of claimen
2. imperative of claimen