claw back
Britishverb
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to get back (something) with difficulty
-
to recover (a sum of money), esp by taxation or a penalty
noun
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the recovery of a sum of money, esp by taxation or a penalty
-
the sum so recovered
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
My friends didn’t even try to claw back their deposit.
Investors were trying to claw back some of their losses from Monday when stocks fell on trade and AI jitters sparked by a viral doomsday report.
And the targets set so far suggest that it will take many years just to claw back the sharp fall in privately sold policies during the crisis.
This demand, though, doesn’t address the specific sanitation issues at ICE detention centers, nor does it attempt to claw back the agency’s authority to set its own standards, where Shuchart believes that the real problem lies.
From Slate
“You can’t ask people to pay more when you haven’t even done the work to claw back on the expenses that you passed,” Rodriguez said.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
