claim 
(klām)
(klām)tr.v. claimed, claim·ing, claims
1. To demand, ask for, or take as one's own or one's due: claim a reward; claim one's luggage at the airport carousel.
2. To take in a violent manner as if by right: a hurricane that claimed two lives.
3. To state to be true, especially when open to question; assert or maintain: claimed he had won the race; a candidate claiming many supporters.
4. To deserve or call for; require: problems that claim her attention.
n.
Idiom: 1. A demand for something as rightful or due.
2. A basis for demanding something; a title or right.
3. Something claimed in a formal or legal manner, especially a tract of public land staked out by a miner or homesteader.
4.
a. A demand for payment in accordance with an insurance policy or other formal arrangement.
b. The sum of money demanded.
5. A statement of something as a fact; an assertion of truth: makes no claim to be a cure.
lay claim to
To assert one's right to or ownership of.
[Middle English claimen, from Old French clamer, claim-, from Latin clāmāre, to call; see kelə-2 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]
claima·ble adj.
claimer n.