verb (thieves’).—To steal. (A locution similar in character to ‘annex,’ ‘convey,’ etc., and derived from a sense of the legitimate word signifying ‘to demand on the ground of right.’) For synonyms, see PRIG.
1879. J. W. HORSLEY, ‘Autobiography of a Thief,’ in Macmillan’s Magazine, XL., 501. So I CLAIMED (stole) them.
TO JUMP A CLAIM, phr. (American and colonial).—To take forcible possession; to defraud; specifically to seize land which has been taken up and occupied by another settler, or squatter. The first occupant is, by squatter law and custom, entitled to the first claim on the land.—See JUMP.
1846. E. H. SMITH, Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak; Or, Black Hawk, and Scenes in the West, VI., xxxvii.
| When I hunted claims, I went far and near, | |
| Resolved from all others to keep myself clear; | |
| And if, through mistake, I JUMPED a man’s CLAIM, | |
| As soon as I knew it I jumped off again. |
1855. FRANK MARRYAT, Mountains and Molehills, p. 217. If a man ‘JUMPED’ it [my CLAIM], and encroached on my boundaries, and I didn’t knock him on the head with a pick-axe,… I appealed to the ‘crowd,’ and my claim being carefully measured and found to be correct, the ‘jumper’ would be ordered to confine himself to his own territory.
1883. R. L. STEVENSON, The Silverado Squatters, p. 221. The CLAIM was JUMPED; a track of mountain-side, fifteen hundred feet long by six hundred wide … had passed from Ronalds to Hanson, and in the passage changed its name from the ‘Mammoth’ to the ‘Calistoga.’
