Word.ws English Dictionary

collecting one's thoughts

collecting one's thoughts is the present participle and gerund of collect one's thoughts.

Meaning of collect one's thoughts

Verb

collect one's thoughts (third-person singular simple present collects one's thoughts, present participle collecting one's thoughts, simple past and past participle collected one's thoughts)

  1. (idiomatic) To become mentally composed, especially after being distressed, surprised, or disoriented; to become calm or organized in one's emotional state or thinking, as in preparation for a conversation, speech, decision, etc.
    • I got up feverish and nervous. I walked out before breakfast, striving to collect my thoughts and tranquilize my feelings.1820, Washington Irving, “The Early Experiences of Ralph Ringwood,”, in The Crayon Papers

Questions about collecting one's thoughts

What is collecting one's thoughts the present participle and gerund of?
Collecting one's thoughts is the present participle and gerund of collect one's thoughts.

Words near collecting one's thoughts in the dictionary

  1. collectibles
  2. collectin
  3. collecting
  4. collecting duct
  5. collecting ducts
  6. collecting one's thoughts
  7. collecting oneself
  8. collecting skin
  9. collecting societies
  10. collecting society
  11. collecting up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: collecting one's thoughts (page history and authors); collect one's thoughts (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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