online medical dictionary | definition of reclaim

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." (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."

4. Hence: To reduce to a desired state by discipline, labour, 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. "Your error, in time reclaimed, will be venial." (Sir E. Hoby)

7. To exclaim against; to gainsay.

Synonyms: To reform, recover, restore, amend, correct.

Origin: F. Reclamer, L. Reclamare, reclamatum, to cry out against; pref. Re- re- + clamare to call or cry aloud. See Claim.

(01 Mar 1998)