Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Claim?

\Claim\ (kl[=a]m), v.?. [imp. & p. p. {Claimed} (kl[=a]md); p. pr. & vb. n. {Claiming}.] [OE. clamen, claimen, OF. clamer, fr. L. clamare to cry out, call; akin to calare to proclaim, Gr. ? to call, Skr. kal to sound, G. holen to fetch, E. hale haul.] 1. To ask for, or seek to obtain, by virtue of authority, right, or supposed right; to challenge as a right; to demand as due. 2. To proclaim. [Obs.] --Spenser. 3. To call or name. [Obs.] --Spenser. 4. To assert; to maintain. [Colloq.]
\Claim\, v. i. To be entitled to anything; to deduce a right or title; to have a claim. We must know how the first ruler, from whom any one claims, came by his authority. --Locke.
\Claim\, n. [Of. claim cry, complaint, from clamer. See {Claim}, v. t.] 1. 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. 2. 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. ``A bar to all claims upon land.'' --Hallam. 3. The thing claimed or demanded; that (as land) to which any one intends to establish a right; as a settler's claim; a miner's claim. [U.S. & Australia] 4. A loud call. [Obs.] --Spenser {To lay claim to}, to demand as a right. ``Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance?'' --Shak.