# clawback

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. A rule that permits a party to take back evidentiary materials that were mistakenly turned over to the other party but to which the other party would not have been entitled.
2. Money that a party is entitled to keep under one tax provision but is taken by another tax provision.
3. Any recovery of a performance-related payment based on discovery that the performance was not genuine.
4. A flatterer or sycophant.

## Etymology
Deverbal from claw back. In the financial senses, refers to something being "clawed back", or reclaimed; in the sense of a flatterer, it suggests the idea of a person's back being scratched (see scratch someone's back).

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/clawback