Definition of claim

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< clafouti

claimant >

claim    (klm) KEY 

TRANSITIVE VERB:
claimed, claim·ing, claims

1. To demand, ask for, or take as one's own or one's due: claim a reward; claim one's luggage at the airport carousel.
2. To take in a violent manner as if by right: a hurricane that claimed two lives.
3. To state to be true, especially when open to question; assert or maintain: claimed he had won the race; a candidate claiming many supporters.
4. To deserve or call for; require: problems that claim her attention.

NOUN:

1. A demand for something as rightful or due.
2. A basis for demanding something; a title or right.
3. Something claimed in a formal or legal manner, especially a tract of public land staked out by a miner or homesteader.
4. 1. A demand for payment in accordance with an insurance policy or other formal arrangement.
   2. The sum of money demanded.
5. A statement of something as a fact; an assertion of truth: makes no claim to be a cure.

IDIOM:
lay claim to

To assert one's right to or ownership of.

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ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English claimen, from Old French clamer, claim-, from Latin clmre, to call; see kel-² in Indo-European roots

OTHER FORMS:
claima·ble(Adjective), claimer(Noun)

SYNONYMS:
claim, pretense, pretension, title

These nouns refer to a legitimate or asserted right to demand something as one's due: had a legal claim to the property; makes no pretense to scholarliness; justified pretensions to the presidency; has no title to our thanks. See also Synonyms at demand.