| reclaim | 1. To call back, as a hawk to the wrist in falconry, by a certain customary call. 2. To call back from flight or disorderly action; to call to, for the purpose of subduing or quieting. "The headstrong horses hurried Octavius . . . Along, and were deaf to his reclaiming them." (Dryden) 3. To reduce from a wild to a tamed state; to bring under discipline; said especially of birds trained for the chase, but also of other animals. "An eagle well reclaimed." 4. Hence: To reduce to a desired state by discipline, labour, cultivation, or the like; to rescue from being wild, desert, waste, submerged, or the like; as, to reclaim wild land, overflowed land, etc. 5. To call back to rectitude from moral wandering or transgression; to draw back to correct deportment or course of life; to reform. "It is the intention of Providence, in all the various expressions of his goodness, to reclaim mankind." (Rogers) 6. To correct; to reform; said of things. "Your error, in time reclaimed, will be venial." (Sir E. Hoby) 7. To exclaim against; to gainsay. Synonym: To reform, recover, restore, amend, correct. Origin: F. Reclamer, L. Reclamare, reclamatum, to cry out against; pref. Re- re- + clamare to call or cry aloud. See Claim. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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