reclaim
To return land to a suitable condition for useTo return land to a suitable condition for use.
» This airport was built on reclaimed land.
CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
10 senses(transitive)To return land to a suitable condition for use.
(transitive)To obtain useful products from waste; to recycle.
reuse (materials from waste products)
(transitive)To claim something back; to repossess.
claim back
(dated, transitive)To return someone to a proper course of action, or correct an error; to reform.
(Scotland, intransitive)To appeal from the Lord Ordinary to the inner house of the Court of Session.
To bring back a term into acceptable usage, usually of a slur, and usually by the group that was once targeted by that slur.
Once a term of homophobic abuse, the term “queer” has been reclaimed as a marker for some gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender (GLBT), and other marginalized sexual identities.
(archaic, transitive)To tame or domesticate a wild animal.
(archaic, transitive)To call back from flight or disorderly action; to call to, for the purpose of subduing or quieting.
(archaic, transitive)To cry out in opposition or contradiction; to exclaim against anything; to contradict; to take exceptions.
(obsolete, rare)To draw back; to give way.
Examples
29 sentencesThis airport was built on reclaimed land.
This table is made from reclaimed wood.
deDieser Tisch besteht aus wiederverwertetem Holz. — Pfirsichbaeumchen
Nature has begun to reclaim these spaces.
This city was built on reclaimed land.
This building was built on reclaimed land.
Translations
5 languagesOrigin
From Middle English reclaymen, recleymen, reclamen, from Anglo-Norman reclamer (noun reclaFrom Middle English reclaymen, recleymen, reclamen, from Anglo-Norman reclamer (noun reclaim and Middle French reclamer (noun reclaim), from Latin reclāmō, reclāmāre. Equivalent to re- + claim.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
reclaims, reclaiming, reclaimed, reclaimedSynonyms
9 synonyms- reuse (materials from waste products):recover-v
- claim back:repossess
- bring, lead, or force to abandon a wrong or evil course of life, conduct, and adopt a right one:reformregeneraterectify
- overcome the wildness of; make docile and tractable:domesticatedomesticizedomesticisetame
Word family
8 related wordsLessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, regular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle