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American Dictionary of the English Language

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Reclaim


RECLA'IM, verb transitive [Latin reclama. re and clamo, to call. See Claim.]

1. To claim back; to demand to have returned. The vender may reclaim the goods.

2. To call back from error, wandering or transgression, to the observance of moral rectitude; to reform; to bring back to correct deportment or course of life.

It is the intention of Providence in its various expressions of goodness, to reclaim mankind.

3. To reduce to the state desired.

Much labor is requir'd in trees, to tame their wild disorder, and in ranks reclaim

4. To call back; to restrain.

Or is her tow'ring flight reclaim'd by seas from Icarus' downfall nam'd?

5. To recall; to cry out against.

The headstrong horses hurried Octavius along, and were deaf to his reclaiming them. [Unusual.]

6. To reduce from a wild to a tame or domestic state; to tame; to make gentle; as, to reclaim a hawk, an eagle or a wild beast.

7. To demand or challenge; to make a claim; a French use.

8. To recover.

9. In ancient customs, to pursue and recall, as a vassal.

10. To encroach on what has been taken from one; to attempt to recover possession.

A tract of land [Holland snatched from an element perpetually reclaiming its prior occupancy.

RECLA'IM, verb intransitive To cry out; to exclaim.