RECLAIM

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

To correct; to reform; -- said of things. [Obs.] Your error, in time reclaimed, will be venial. Sir E. Hoby.

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

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.

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.

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

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