lay claim

present singular third person lays claim · participle present laying claim · participle past laid claim · past laid claim

1. idiomaticusuallywith toTo state that something belongs to oneself.

   Spencer University lays claim to the recently published discovery.

   2 more examples

   Argentina also lays claim to what is now Queen Elizabeth Land, as well as to other South Atlantic dependencies including South Georgia and the uninhabited South Sandwich Islands.

   2013 January 3, Luke Harding, Uki Goni, The Guardian

   Just ahead of the auction, though, a potential heir from outside the family, laid claim on the work, according to Austria's Der Standard newspaper.

   2024 May 4, Melanie Gerlies, “New claimant to €35 mn Klimt emerges”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 18

   Synonyms: stake a claim