Claim

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.