What does "claim" mean?

Claim: To proclaim. [Obs.] Spenser.

Additional senses

  1. 2.To call or name. [Obs.] Spenser.
  2. 3.To assert; to maintain. [Colloq.]
  3. 4.To be entitled to anything; to deduce a right or title; to have a claim. We must know how the first ruler, from whom any one claims, came by his authority. Locke.
  4. 5.A demand of a right or supposed right; a calling on another for something due or supposed to be due; an assertion of a right or fact.
  5. 6.A right to claim or demand something; a title to any debt, privilege, or other thing in possession of another; also, a title to anything which another should give or concede to, or confer on, the claimant. "A bar to all claims upon land." Hallam.
  6. 7.The thing claimed or demanded; that (as land) to which any one intends to establish a right; as a settler's claim; a miner's claim. [U.S. & Australia]
  7. 8.A laoud call. [Obs.] Spenser To lay claim to, to demand as a right. "Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance" Shak.

Sources