gather

English

Etymology

From Middle English gaderen, from Old English gaderian (“to gather, assemble”), from Proto-Germanic *gadurōną (“to bring together, unite, gather”), frequentative of *gadōną (“to hold together”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰedʰ- (“to unite, assemble, keep”). Cognate with Dutch gaderen, garen (“to gather”), German vergattern (“to line up troops; to commit to sentry duty”), Low German vergadern, 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.

Pronunciation

Verb

gather (third-person singular simple present gathers, present participle gathering, simple past and past participle gathered)

  1. 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.
    1. Especially, to harvest food.
      We went to gather some blackberries from the nearby lane.
    2. To accumulate over time, to amass little by little.
      Over the years he'd gathered a considerable collection of mugs.
    3. (intransitive) To congregate, or assemble.
      People gathered round as he began to tell his story.
      • Tennyson
        Tears from the depth of some divine despair / Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes.
    4. (intransitive) To grow gradually larger by accretion.
      • Francis Bacon
        Their snowball did not gather as it went.
  2. To bring parts of a whole closer.
    She gathered the shawl about her as she stepped into the cold.
    1. (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.
    2. (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.
    3. (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.
    4. (nautical) To haul in; to take up.
      to gather the slack of a rope
  3. 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.
  4. (intransitive, medicine, of a boil or sore) To be filled with pus
    Salt water can help boils to gather and then burst.
  5. (glassblowing) To collect molten glass on the end of a tool.
  6. To gain; to win.
    • Dryden
      He gathers ground upon her in the chase.

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Noun

gather (plural gathers)

  1. A plait or fold in cloth, made by drawing a thread through it; a pucker.
  2. The inclination forward of the axle journals to keep the wheels from working outward.
  3. The soffit or under surface of the masonry required in gathering. See gather (transitive verb).
  4. (glassblowing) A blob of molten glass collected on the end of a blowpipe.

Derived terms

  • gathering iron

Translations

Anagrams

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