gather
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɡæðə/
ipa: /ˈɡæðɚ/
rhymes: -æðə(ɹ)
Forms: form: gathers
form: gathering
form: gathered
form: gathered
form: gether
Etymology: From Middle English gaderen, from Old English gaderian (“to gather, assemble”), from Proto-West Germanic *gadurōn (“to bring together, unite, gather”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰedʰ- (“to unite, assemble, keep”).
Senses: examples: text: I've been gathering ideas from the people I work with.
text: She bent down to gather the reluctant cat from beneath the chair.
glosses: To collect normally separate things.
examples: text: We went to gather some blackberries from the nearby lane.
glosses: To collect normally separate things.
Especially, to harvest food.
examples: text: Over the years he'd gathered a considerable collection of mugs.
glosses: To collect normally separate things.
To accumulate over time, to amass little by little.
examples: text: People gathered round as he began to tell his story.
text: Tears from the depth of some divine despair / Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, […]
ref: 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part IV”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 66:
text: At the north-western most of Iran, to the south of Maku, is the Church of Qara Kelisa (meaning the Black Church) in a village of the same name. Here is reputed to be the burialplace of St. Thaddeus and every year thousands of Armenians gather there for prayer.
ref: 2010, “Ardebil, East and West Azerbaijan Provinces”, in F. Ghani, transl., Iran The Ancient Land in Persian, English & German, 9th edition, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 231:
glosses: To collect normally separate things.
To congregate, or assemble.
examples: text: Their snow-ball did not gather as it went.
ref: 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC:
glosses: To collect normally separate things.
To grow gradually larger by accretion.
examples: text: She gathered the shawl about her as she stepped into the cold.
glosses: To bring parts of a whole closer.
examples: text: A gown should be gathered around the top so that it will remain shaped.
topics: business
manufacturing
sewing
textiles
glosses: To bring parts of a whole closer.
To add pleats or folds to a piece of cloth, normally to reduce its width.
examples: text: Be careful not to stretch or gather your knitting.
text: If you want to emphasise the shape, it is possible to gather the waistline.
topics: business
knitting
manufacturing
textiles
glosses: To bring parts of a whole closer.
To bring stitches closer together.
topics: architecture
glosses: To bring parts of a whole closer.
To bring together, or nearer together, in masonry, as for example where the width of a fireplace is rapidly diminished to the width of the flue.
examples: text: to gather the slack of a rope
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To bring parts of a whole closer.
To haul in; to take up.
examples: text: From his silence, I gathered that things had not gone well.
text: I gather from Aunty May that you had a good day at the match.
text: Press reports of the length of time the bridge is likely to be out of action vary greatly, but Mr. Farr gathers that a temporary structure may be ready in six months; complete reconstruction, however, will take at least two years. [It was never rebuilt or replaced, and demolished instead.]
ref: 1960 January, “Talking of Trains: The Seven Bridge disaster”, in Trains Illustrated, page 5:
glosses: To infer or conclude; to know from a different source.
examples: text: Salt water can help boils to gather and then burst.
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: To be filled with pus
raw_tags: of a boil or sore
topics: arts
crafts
glassblowing
hobbies
lifestyle
glosses: To collect molten glass on the end of a tool.
examples: text: He gathers ground upon her in the chase.
ref: 1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To gain; to win.
Synonyms: sense: —to accumulate over time
word: accrue
word: add up
word: accumulate
sense: —to congregate
word: assemble
word: begather
word: assemble
sense: to bring together
word: aggroup
word: togetherize
word: round up
Derived terms: a closed mouth gathers no feet
begather
be gathered to one's fathers
chip and gather
chip-and-gather
forgather
gatherable
gather dust
gatherer
gathering board
gathering coal
gathering hoop
gather oneself
gather oneself together
gather one's thoughts
gather one's wits
gather pace
gather rosebuds
gather speed
gather steam
gather strength
gather up
gather way
gather wool
hunter-gather
hunter-gathering
ingather
misgather
omnium-gatherum
regather
together
upgather
wool-gather
woolgather
wool-gathering