Gather
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -æðə(r)
Origin
From Middle English gaderen, from Old English gaderian ("to gather, assemble"), from Proto-Germanic *gadurÅnÄ… ("to bring together, unite, gather"), frequentative of Proto-Germanic *gadÅnÄ… ("to hold together"), from Proto-Indo-European *gÊ°edÊ°- ("to unite, assemble, keep"). Cognate with Dutch gaderen, garen ("to gather"), Middle High German gadern ("to gather"), Old Frisian gadia ("to unite"), German begatten ("to mate"), Albanian gjedhe ("model, sample; to choose, prefer"). Compare also Old English gæd ("society, fellowship, union"). More at good.
Full definition of gather
Verb
- To collect; normally separate things.I've been gathering ideas from the people I work with.She bent down to gather the reluctant cat from beneath the chair.
- Especially, to harvest food.We went to gather some blackberries from the nearby lane.
- To accumulate over time, to amass little by little.Over the years he'd gathered a considerable collection of mugs.
- (intransitive) To congregate, or assemble.People gathered round as he began to tell his story.
- TennysonTears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes. - (intransitive) To grow gradually larger by accretion.
- Francis BaconTheir snowball did not gather as it went.
- To bring parts of a whole closer.She gathered the shawl about her as she stepped into the cold.
- (sewing) To add pleats or folds to a piece of cloth, normally to reduce its width.A gown should be gathered around the top so that it will remain shaped.
- (knitting) To bring stitches closer together.Be careful not to stretch or gather your knitting.If you want to emphasise the shape, it is possible to gather the waistline.
- (architecture) 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.
- (nautical) To haul in; to take up.to gather the slack of a rope
- To infer or conclude; to know from a different source.From his silence, I gathered that things had not gone well.I gather from Aunty May that you had a good day at the match.
- (intransitive, medicine, of a boil or sore) To be filled with pusSalt water can help boils to gather and then burst.
- (glassblowing) To collect molten glass on the end of a tool.
- To gain; to win.
- DrydenHe gathers ground upon her in the chase.
Noun
gather
(plural gathers)- A plait or fold in cloth, made by drawing a thread through it; a pucker.
- The inclination forward of the axle journals to keep the wheels from working outward.
- The soffit or under surface of the masonry required in gathering. See gather (transitive verb).
- (glassblowing) A blob of molten glass collected on the end of a blowpipe.