collect

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English collecten, a borrowing from Old French collecter, from Medieval Latin collectare (“to collect money”), from Latin collecta (“a collection of money, in Late Latin a meeting, assemblage, in Medieval Latin a tax, also an assembly for prayer, a prayer”), feminine of collectus, past participle of colligere, conligere (“to gather together, collect, consider, conclude, infer”), from com- (“together”) + legere (“to gather”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kəˈlɛkt/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛkt

Verb

collect (third-person singular simple present collects, present participle collecting, simple past and past participle collected)

  1. (transitive) To gather together; amass.
    • 2013 July-August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:
      Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame.
    Suzanne collected all the papers she had laid out.
  2. (transitive) To get; particularly, get from someone.
    A bank collects a monthly payment on a client's new car loan.   A mortgage company collects a monthly payment on a house.
  3. (transitive) To accumulate a number of similar or related (objects), particularly for a hobby or recreation.
    John Henry collects stamps.
  4. (transitive, now rare) To form a conclusion; to deduce, infer. (Compare gather, get.)
    • 1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book II, Chapter XVII, section 20
      […] which consequence, I conceive, is very ill collected.
    • c 1725, John Walker, ‎William Burton (of Bloomsbury), Essays and correspondence, chiefly on Scriptural subjects:
      From the latter passages we may collect, that the expression "he that cometh" was, with the Jews, a kind of title distinguishing the Messiah
    • 1814, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park:
      'I collect,' said Miss Crawford, 'that Sotherton is an old place, and a place of some grandeur. In any particular style of building?'
    • 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial 2007, page 292-3:
      the riot is so great that it is very difficult to collect what is being said.
  5. (intransitive, often with on or against) To collect payments.
    He had a lot of trouble collecting on that bet he made.
  6. (intransitive) To come together in a group or mass.
    The rain collected in puddles.
  7. (intransitive) To collect objects as a hobby.
    I don't think he collects as much as hoards.
  8. (transitive) To infer; to conclude.
    • (Can we date this quote?), South
      Whence some collect that the former word imports a plurality of persons.
Hyponyms
Translations

Adjective

collect (not comparable)

  1. To be paid for by the recipient, as a telephone call or a shipment.
    It was to be a collect delivery, but no-one was available to pay.
Translations

Adverb

collect (not comparable)

  1. With payment due from the recipient.
    I had to call collect.

Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Latin ōrātiō ad collectam (“prayer towards the congregation”).

Pronunciation

Noun

collect (plural collects) (sometimes capitalized)

  1. (Christianity) The prayer said before the reading of the epistle lesson, especially one found in a prayerbook, as with the Book of Common Prayer.
    He used the day's collect as the basis of his sermon.
Translations

Further reading

  • collect in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • collect in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
  • collect at OneLook Dictionary Search
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