Gath·er v. t. [imp. & p. p. Gathered p. pr. & vb. n. Gathering.]
1. 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.
And Belgium's capital had gathered them
Her beauty and her chivalry. --Byron.
When he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together. --Matt. ii. 4.
2. 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.
A rose just gathered from the stalk. --Dryden.
Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? --Matt. vii. 16.
Gather us from among the heathen. --Ps. cvi. 47.
3. To accumulate by collecting and saving little by little; to amass; to gain; to heap up.
He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor. --Prov. xxviii. 8.
To pay the creditor . . . he must gather up money by degrees. --Locke.
4. To bring closely together the parts or particles of; to contract; to compress; to bring together in folds or plaits, as a garment; also, to draw together, as a piece of cloth by a thread; to pucker; to plait; as, to gather a ruffle.
Gathering his flowing robe, he seemed to stand
In act to speak, and graceful stretched his hand. --Pope.
5. To derive, or deduce, as an inference; to collect, as a conclusion, from circumstances that suggest, or arguments that prove; to infer; to conclude.
Let me say no more!
Gather the sequel by that went before. --Shak.
6. To gain; to win. [Obs.]
He gathers ground upon her in the chase. --Dryden.
7. Arch. To bring together, or nearer together, in masonry, as where the width of a fireplace is rapidly diminished to the width of the flue, or the like.
8. Naut. To haul in; to take up; as, to gather the slack of a rope.
To be gathered to one's people or To be gathered to one's fathers to die. --Gen. xxv. 8.
To gather breath, to recover normal breathing after being out of breath; to get one's breath; to rest. --Spenser.
To gather one's self together, to collect and dispose one's powers for a great effort, as a beast crouches preparatory to a leap.
To gather way Naut., to begin to move; to move with increasing speed.
gathered
adj 1: having accumulated or become more intense; "the deepened
gloom" [syn: deepened]
2: brought together in one place; "the collected works of
Milton"; "the gathered folds of the skirt" [syn: collected]
[ant: uncollected, uncollected]