reclaim

reclaim — verb

1. to get back ownership or possession of something that rightfully belongs to you,

1.verbtransitiveB1
Definition

to get back ownership or possession of something that rightfully belongs to you, especially after it was taken away, lost, or given to someone else

Example

Dario reclaimed his grandfather's watch from the pawn shop after saving enough money.

reclaim + possession + from [place]

After months of physiotherapy, Soraya finally reclaimed her ability to walk without pain.

reclaim + abstract possession (ability, confidence, freedom)

Common collocations
  • reclaim + tax
  • reclaim + property
  • reclaim + rights
  • reclaim + throne/title
  • reclaim + from
Synonyms
  • recover

    broader — can mean finding lost items or returning to a normal state (recover from illness), while reclaim emphasizes rightful ownership

  • retrieve

    more active and immediate — you retrieve something by going to get it, often without a sense of rightful ownership (retrieve a file)

  • regain

    focuses on returning to a former state or position (regain control, regain strength) rather than claiming what is yours by right

  • recoup

    restricted to money or losses (recoup costs); more formal and specific than reclaim

Antonyms
  • surrender

    to give up possession willingly

  • forfeit

    to lose the right to something as a penalty

Grammar Patterns

reclaim + noun phrase

reclaim + noun phrase + from + noun phrase

Usage Note

Frequently used in legal, financial, and institutional contexts (reclaim tax, reclaim property, reclaim your rights). The object is typically something that belonged to you by right, not something you merely borrowed.

Common Mistakes

I reclaimed my library book yesterday.
I returned my library book yesterday.
'reclaim' implies the item was taken or lost, not borrowed with permission and returned.

2. to change natural terrain — such as a desert, wetland, or area covered by water

2.verbtransitiveB2
Definition

to change natural terrain — such as a desert, wetland, or area covered by water — so that it becomes suitable for farming, building, or other human activities

Example

The Dutch have reclaimed large areas of land from the sea using dikes and pumps.

passive: land is reclaimed from [body of water]

Eitan's village reclaimed a dry valley by digging irrigation channels from the river.

reclaim + natural feature + by [method]

Common collocations
  • reclaimed land
  • reclaim + from the sea
  • reclaim + from the desert
  • land reclamation
Synonyms
  • drain

    more specific — only removing water, not making land usable in general (drain a swamp)

  • irrigate

    more specific — supplying water to dry land, not transforming the land's basic condition

Antonyms
  • flood

    to cover land with water, undoing the reclamation

  • abandon

    to leave land unused, letting nature take over again

Grammar Patterns

reclaim + land/noun phrase

be reclaimed + from + natural feature

Usage Note

Commonly appears in the passive voice ('land was reclaimed'). The Netherlands is the most famous historical example of large-scale land reclamation from the sea.

Common Mistakes

I reclaimed my garden by adding fertiliser.
I improved my garden by adding fertiliser.
'reclaim' means changing the fundamental nature of land (e.g., draining a swamp, irrigating a desert), not just improving existing soil.

3. to extract useful substances from waste or industrial by-products so they can be

3.verbtransitiveB2
Definition

to extract useful substances from waste or industrial by-products so they can be processed and used to make new products

Example

The factory reclaims valuable metals like gold and copper from discarded mobile phones.

reclaim + specific material + from + waste source

Sofie's team developed a new method to reclaim plastic fibres from old fishing nets.

Common collocations
  • reclaim + metals/plastics/glass/water
  • reclaimed materials
  • reclaim + from waste
  • reclaim + from scrap
Synonyms
  • recycle

    broader and more common — refers to processing used items into new products; 'reclaim' is more specific to extracting materials from waste

  • recover

    can overlap but broader — recover materials could include mining, while reclaim specifically involves waste

  • salvage

    focuses on rescuing usable things from damage or destruction (salvage a shipwreck), often with a sense of urgency

Antonyms
  • discard

    to throw away as worthless

  • waste

    to use resources carelessly without recovering value

Grammar Patterns

reclaim + material + from + source

Usage Note

Distinguish from 'recycle': recycling typically turns used products back into new versions of the same product (e.g., bottle to bottle), while reclaiming focuses on extracting raw materials from complex waste streams, often for different uses. 'Reclaim' is more common in industrial and engineering contexts than in household language.

Common Mistakes

Every week I reclaim the newspapers from my recycling bin.
Every week I recycle the newspapers.
'reclaim' is used for industrial extraction processes, not ordinary household recycling.

4. to rescue someone from a harmful, criminal, or self-destructive way of living an

4.verbtransitiveC1
Definition

to rescue someone from a harmful, criminal, or self-destructive way of living and help them adopt a law-abiding or healthier lifestyle

Example

The outreach programme reclaimed dozens of young people from gang violence every year.

reclaim + [person] + from + [negative situation]

Heloísa dedicated her life to reclaiming former prisoners through job training and housing support.

Common collocations
  • reclaim + from crime/drugs/gang violence
  • reclaim + former prisoners
  • reclaim + addicts
Synonyms
  • reform

    more general and common — focuses on changing behaviour; reclaim implies a stronger sense of rescue and intervention

  • rescue

    emphasizes saving someone from immediate danger; reclaim focuses on the longer process of helping them change their life

  • redeem

    has religious or moral overtones — making someone 'good' again after wrongdoing; more abstract than reclaim

Antonyms
  • corrupt

    to lead someone into wrongdoing, the opposite of reclaiming them

  • abandon

    to give up on someone rather than helping them reform

Grammar Patterns

reclaim + someone + from + noun phrase

Usage Note

This sense appears mainly in formal social-work, religious, or criminological writing. Less common in everyday conversation — 'reform' or 'turn someone's life around' is more natural in speech. The object is typically a person or group, not an abstract quality.

Common Mistakes

The teacher reclaimed the student for talking in class.
The teacher corrected the student for talking in class.
'reclaim' in this sense refers to rescuing someone from serious wrongdoing (crime, addiction), not correcting minor misbehaviour.

reclaim — noun

Word family

  • reclamation
    nounC1
  • reclaimed
    adjectiveB2
  • reclaimable
    adjectiveC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

All four words involve getting something back, but they differ in emphasis and context. 'Recover' is the broadest — you can recover a lost item, your health, or data from a hard drive, and it often implies effort or luck rather than a legal right. 'Retrieve' suggests a deliberate physical or digital action: you retrieve a file from a folder or a ball from under a sofa. 'Regain' focuses on returning to a former state or position that you once had (regain your composure, regain the lead in a race). 'Recoup' is narrower: it belongs almost exclusively to financial contexts (recoup your investment, recoup costs). 'Reclaim' stands apart because it carries a sense of rightful ownership and often involves a formal process — you reclaim tax, property, or a cultural artifact. For example: 'She recovered her stolen phone from the police station' (found it), but 'She reclaimed her inheritance after the legal dispute was settled' (used legal right to get it back).

recover ↗retrieve ↗regain ↗recoup

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • reclaim + from the sea
  • reclaim + from waste
  • baggage reclaim area

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchEnglish

'Reclaim' entered English around the 1300s from Old French 'reclamer', meaning 'to call back' or 'to appeal'. The French word came from Latin 'reclamare' — a combination of 're-' (back, again) and 'clamare' (to shout, cry out). In its earliest English uses, 'reclaim' meant 'to call a hawk back to the hand' in falconry. By the 1500s the sense of shouting had faded, and the word came to mean simply 'to demand the return of something.' The agricultural sense (making land usable) developed in the 1600s, and the waste-treatment sense emerged in the 1900s during the rise of industrial recycling.