stake a claim
To assert one's ownership of or right to something. My great-grandfather staked a claim to this land. You can't have this cookie because someone else already staked a claim to it.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
stake a claim to someone or something
Fig. to state or record one's claim on someone or something. (Alludes to marking off an area by pounding in wooden stakes.) she staked a claim to Jeff and told all her rivals to stay away. The prospector staked a claim to the gold-rich area.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
stake a claim
Also, stake out a claim. Indicate something as one's own, as in I'm staking a claim to the drumstick, or She staked out a claim for herself in the insurance business. This term, dating from the mid-1800s, originally meant "register a claim to land by marking it with stakes." It was being used figuratively by the late 1800s.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
stake a claim
declare your right to something. This expression refers to the practice of putting stakes around the perimeter of a piece of land to which a claim is laid. It is American in origin, dating from the California gold rush of 1849 , when the prospectors registered their claims to individual plots of land in this way.
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
stake (out) a/your ˈclaim to somebody/something
say that you have a special interest in somebody/something, or have a right to own something, especially to warn other people not to take it: Both countries have staked out a claim to the land.If you staked out your claim to some land, you put stakes (= wooden posts) in the ground to mark the limits of land that you claimed was yours.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017