reclaim

Verb

reclaim (third-person singular simple present reclaims, present participle reclaiming, simple past and past participle reclaimed)

1. (transitive) To return land to a suitable condition for use.
2. (transitive) To obtain useful products from waste; to recycle.
3. (transitive) To claim something back; to repossess.
4. (dated, transitive) To return someone to a proper course of action, or correct an error; to reform.
   • His Highneſſe pleaſure is that he ſhould liue,
     And be reclaim’d with princely lenitie.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
   • Your errour, in time reclaimed, will be veniall.1609, Edward Hoby, A Letter to Mr. T[heophilus] H[iggons], late Minister: now Fugitive ... in answere of his first Motive
5. (archaic, transitive) To tame or domesticate a wild animal.
   • an eagle well reclaimed1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
6. (archaic, transitive) To call back from flight or disorderly action; to call to, for the purpose of subduing or quieting.
   • They were the head-strong horses, who hurried Octavius […] along, and were deaf to his reclaiming them.1697, Virgil, “The First Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
7. (archaic, transitive) To cry out in opposition or contradiction; to exclaim against anything; to contradict; to take exceptions.
   • True it is he was very wild in his youth till God (the best Chymick who can fix quicksilver it self) gratiously reclaim'd him1642, Thomas Fuller, The Holy State, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel for John Williams, […], →OCLC
   • Scripture reclaims, and the whole Catholic church reclaims, and Christian ears would not bear it.1719, Daniel Waterland, A Vindication of Christ's Divinit
8. (obsolete, rare) To draw back; to give way.
   • Yet would he not perswaded be for ought,
     Ne from his currish will a whit reclame.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
9. (Scotland, intransitive) To appeal from the Lord Ordinary to the inner house of the Court of Session.
10. 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.

Noun

UK/ˈɹiːkleɪm/

reclaim (countable and uncountable, plural reclaims)

1. (obsolete) The calling back of a hawk.
2. (obsolete) The bringing back or recalling of a person; the fetching of someone back.
   • The louing couple need no reskew feare, / But leasure had, and libertie to frame / Their purpost flight, free from all mens reclame […].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
3. An effort to take something back, to reclaim something.
4. Material recovered from something that has already been used.
   • Is it okay to smoke cannabis reclaim?