Claim (klām), v.&?;.
[imp. & p. p. Claimed (klāmd);
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.
