gather
UK /ˈɡæðə/ · US /ˈɡæðɚ/ verb, noun
Forms gathers gathering gathered gether
- verb To collect normally separate things. “I've been gathering ideas from the people I work with.”
- verb Especially, to harvest food. “We went to gather some blackberries from the nearby lane.”
- verb To accumulate over time, to amass little by little. “Over the years he'd gathered a considerable collection of mugs.”
- verb (intransitive) To congregate, or assemble. “People gathered round as he began to tell his story.”
- verb (intransitive) To grow gradually larger by accretion.
- verb To bring parts of a whole closer. “She gathered the shawl about her as she stepped into the cold.”
- verb (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.”
- verb (knitting) To bring stitches closer together. “Be careful not to stretch or gather your knitting.”
- noun A plait or fold in cloth, made by drawing a thread through it; a pucker.
- noun The inclination forward of the axle journals to keep the wheels from working outward.
- noun (masonry) The soffit or under surface of the masonry required in gathering. See gather.
- noun (glassblowing) A blob of molten glass collected on the end of a blowpipe.
- noun A gathering.
Synonyms
accrue assemble aggroup add up begather togetherize gathering garner collect pull together meet forgather foregather accumulate cumulate conglomerate pile up amass pucker tuck get together gain
Antonyms
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”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To bring together; to collect, as a number of separate things, into one place, or into one aggregate body; to assemble; to muster; to congregate.
- verb To pick out and bring together from among what is of less value; to collect, as a harvest; to harvest; to cull; to pick off; to pluck.
- verb To come together; to collect; to unite; to become assembled; to congregate.
- verb To grow larger by accretion; to increase.
Etymology [OE. gaderen, AS. gaderian, gadrian, fr. gador, geador, together, fr. gæd fellowship; akin to E. good, D. gaderen to collect, G. gatte husband, MHG. gate, also companion, Goth. gadiliggs a sister's son. sq. root29. See Good, and cf. Together.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “gather”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details