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-Italic *klāmāō, from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“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”), κλέδον (klédon, “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/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• 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.

   • 1946, Esther K. Sheldon, “Pronouncing Systems in Eighteenth-Century Dictionaries”, in Language‎^[1], volume 22, number 1, Linguistic Society of America, →DOI, page 28:

     Bailey, in using accents, felt that he was 'directing to their proper pronuntiation' and showing 'the Orthoepia of the English Tongue' (title page, Dictionarium Britannicum, 1730 edition). The claim is ridiculous.

   • 2022 January 12, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Unhappy start to 2022”, in RAIL, number 948, page 3:

     The thing is, we've even had formal confirmation from Government itself that the crucial research required to make such sweeping claims hasn't been done!

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
• → Indonesian: klaim

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

1. To demand ownership of.
   • 1996 March 15, Leyla Linton, “London students sing their defiance”, in The Times‎^[2], number 65,528, →ISSN, →OCLC, Overseas News, page 14, columns 1, 2:

     Jeffrey Chuang, an economics student at University College London, said: "I am for independence. I do not think China has any right to claim Taiwan. We have confidence in our country and we know that China is not capable of doing anything to us."

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.
   • 1689 December (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 1, in Two Treatises of Government: […], London: […] Awnsham Churchill, […], →OCLC:

     We must know how the first ruler, from whom any one claims, came by his authority, upon what ground any one has empire

6. To cause the loss of.

   The attacks claimed the lives of five people.

   A fire claimed two homes.

7. To win as a prize in a sport or competition.

   He claimed $100 after winning the top spot.

8. (obsolete) To proclaim.
9. (archaic) To call or name.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Nor all, that else through all the world is named […] / Might like to this be clamed.

• claimable
• claimant
• claimer
• disclaim
• disclaimer

• “claim”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “claim”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• malic

From English claim.

claim

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) to claim a sum of money

   claim錢／claim钱 [Cantonese]  ―  kem¹ cin^4-2 [Jyutping]  ―  reimbursement

   claim保險／claim保险 [Cantonese]  ―  kem¹ bou² him² [Jyutping]  ―  to make an insurance claim

• English Loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese

• Audio:

  (file)

claim

1. inflection of claimen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative