gather

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”).

verb

1. To collect; normally separate things.
   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.
   4. (intransitive) To grow gradually larger by accretion.
2. To bring parts of a whole closer.
   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.
   Press reports of the length of time the bridge is likely to be out of action vary greatly, but Mr. Farr gathers that a temporary structure may be ready in six months; complete reconstruction, however, will take at least two years. [It was never rebuilt or replaced, and demolished instead.] 1960 January, “Talking of Trains: The Seven Bridge disaster”, in Trains Illustrated, page 5
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.

noun

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. (masonry) The soffit or under surface of the masonry required in gathering. See gather.
4. (glassblowing) A blob of molten glass collected on the end of a blowpipe.
5. A gathering.
   "I'll tell you all about it at the Gather, win or lose." 2007, John Barnes, The Sky So Big and Black, Tor Books
   What bothered him more, he thought as he started Washoe southward, was Spikes's animosity, the bearded man's sudden violent reaction to his arrival at the gather. 2014, Paul Lederer, Dark Angel Riding, Open Road Media