to get possession of something again with difficulty

The airline is beginning to claw back some of the business it lost after the bomb explosion. 航空公司开始着手夺回在炸弹爆炸事件后损失的一些业务。

If the government, for example, claws back money, it takes money back in one way that it has already given in another way.

We got a government grant for setting up our business, but they clawed it all back again in taxes. 我们得到了一项政府拨款开办了公司，可是他们以税收的形式把钱全收回去了。