WordNet
n. the act of taking possession of or power over something; "his assumption of office coincided with the trouble in Cuba"; "the Nazi assumption of power in 1934"; "he acquired all the company's assets for ten million dollars and the assumption of the company's debts" [syn: assumption]
Usage examples of "laying claim".
Then he had bought their claims from them, and he was now laying claim to more than a hundred thousand acres.
She took possession of his mouth, her small tongue sweeping in, laying claim to the masculine essence of him.
Perhaps that is her way of laying claim to a heritage that has otherwise been denied her.
The army has been been laying claim to everything-they use a lot of supplies.
Others clustered around the oxen and the supply sledge, laying claim to the spoils of battle.
But it roused my ire to see interlopers laying claim to it as well.