— gatherable , adj. — gatherer , n.
/gadh"euhr/ , v.t.
1. to bring together into one group, collection, or place: to gather firewood; to gather the troops.
2. to bring together or assemble from various places, sources, or people; collect gradually: The college is gathering a faculty from all over the country.
3. to serve as a center of attention for; attract: A good football game always gathers a crowd.
4. to pick or harvest (any crop or natural yield) from its place of growth or formation: to gather fruit; to gather flowers.
5. to pick up piece by piece: Gather your toys from the floor.
6. to pick or scoop up: She gathered the crying child in her arms.
7. to collect (as taxes, dues, money owed, etc.).
8. to accumulate; increase: The storm gathers force. The car gathered speed.
9. to take by selection from among other things; sort out; cull.
10. to assemble or collect (one's energies or oneself) as for an effort (often fol. by up ): He gathered up his strength for the hard job.
11. to learn or conclude from observation; infer; deduce: I gather that he is the real leader.
12. to wrap or draw around or close: He gathered his scarf around his neck.
13. to contract (the brow) into wrinkles.
14. to draw (cloth) up on a thread in fine folds or puckers by means of even stitches.
15. Bookbinding. to assemble (the printed sections of a book) in proper sequence for binding.
16. Naut. to gain (way) from a dead stop or extremely slow speed.
17. Metalworking. to increase the sectional area of (stock) by any of various operations.
18. Glassmaking. to accumulate or collect (molten glass) at the end of a tube for blowing, shaping, etc.
v.i.
19. to come together around a central point; assemble: Let's gather round the fire and sing.
20. to collect or accumulate: Clouds were gathering in the northeast.
21. to grow, as by accretion; increase.
22. to become contracted into wrinkles, folds, creases, etc., as the brow or as cloth.
23. to come to a head, as a sore in suppurating.
24. be gathered to one's fathers , to die.
n.
25. a drawing together; contraction.
26. Often, gathers . a fold or pucker, as in gathered cloth.
27. an act or instance of gathering.
28. an amount or number gathered, as during a harvest.
29. Glassmaking. a mass of molten glass attached to the end of a punty.
[ bef. 900; ME gaderen, OE gaderian, deriv. of geador together, akin to gaed fellowship; cf. TOGETHER, GOOD ]
Syn. 1, 2. accumulate, amass, garner, hoard. GATHER, ASSEMBLE, COLLECT, MUSTER, MARSHAL imply bringing or drawing together. GATHER expresses the general idea usually with no implication of arrangement: to gather seashells. ASSEMBLE is used of objects or facts brought together preparatory to arranging them: to assemble data for a report. COLLECT implies purposeful accumulation to form an ordered whole: to collect evidence.
MUSTER, primarily a military term, suggests thoroughness in the process of collection: to muster all one's resources. MARSHAL, another term primarily military, suggests rigorously ordered, purposeful arrangement: to marshal facts for effective presentation. 4. pluck, crop, reap, glean, garner. 11. assume, understand. 20. accrete.
Ant. 1, 19. separate, disperse.