RECLAIMING

Verb

reclaiming

present participle of reclaim

Proper noun

Reclaiming

Reclaiming Wicca

Source: Wiktionary


RECLAIM

Re*claim", v. t.

Definition: To claim back; to demand the return of as a right; to attempt to recover possession of. A tract of land [Holland] snatched from an element perpetually reclaiming its prior occupancy. W. Coxe.

Re*claim", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Reclaimed; p. pr. & vb. n. Reclaiming.] Etym: [F. réclamer, L. reclamare, reclamatum, to cry out against; pref. re- re- + clamare to call or cry aloud. See Claim.]

1. To call back, as a hawk to the wrist in falconry, by a certain customary call. Chaucer.

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." Dryden.

4. Hence: To reduce to a desired state by discipline, labor, 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. [Obs.] Your error, in time reclaimed, will be venial. Sir E. Hoby.

7. To exclaim against; to gainsay. [Obs.] Fuller.

Syn.

– To reform; recover; restore; amend; correct.

Re*claim", v. i.

1. To cry out in opposition or contradiction; to exclaim against anything; to contradict; to take exceptions. Scripture reclaims, and the whole Catholic church reclaims, and Christian ears would not hear it. Waterland. At a later period Grote reclaimed strongly against Mill's setting Whately above Hamilton. Bain.

2. To bring anyone back from evil courses; to reform. They, hardened more by what might most reclaim, Grieving to see his glory . . . took envy. Milton.

3. To draw back; to give way. [R. & Obs.] Spenser.

Re*claim", n.

Definition: The act of reclaiming, or the state of being reclaimed; reclamation; recovery. [Obs.]

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

3 July 2025

SENSE

(noun) the faculty through which the external world is apprehended; “in the dark he had to depend on touch and on his senses of smell and hearing”


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Coffee Trivia

The Boston Tea Party helped popularize coffee in America. The hefty tea tax imposed on the colonies in 1773 resulted in America switching from tea to coffee. In the lead up to the Revolutionary War, it became patriotic to sip java instead of tea. The Civil War made the drink more pervasive. Coffee helped energize tired troops, and drinking it became an expression of freedom.

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