Reclaim /(rē*klām")/

1. 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.

imp. & p. p. Reclaimed; p. pr. & vb. n. Reclaiming

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.

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.
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.

6. To correct; to reform; -- said of things. [Obs.]

   Your error, in time reclaimed, will be venial.

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

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.

   At a later period Grote reclaimed strongly against Mill's setting Whately above Hamilton.

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.

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

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