gather
UK/ˈɡæðə/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈɡaðə/
gather verb: to collect normally separate things.
Verb
gather (third-person singular simple present gathers, present participle gathering, simple past and past participle gathered)
- To collect normally separate things.
- I've been gathering ideas from the people I work with.
- She bent down to gather the reluctant cat from beneath the chair.
- Especially, to harvest food.
- We went to gather some blackberries from the nearby lane.
- To accumulate over time, to amass little by little.
- Over the years he'd gathered a considerable collection of mugs.
- To congregate, or assemble.
- People gathered round as he began to tell his story.
- Tears from the depth of some divine despair / Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, […]1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part IV”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 66
- To grow gradually larger by accretion.
- Their snow-ball did not gather as it went.1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret...
- To bring parts of a whole closer.
- She gathered the shawl about her as she stepped into the cold.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- To haul in; to take up.
- to gather the slack of a rope
- 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.
- To be filled with pus
- Salt water can help boils to gather and then burst.
- To collect molten glass on the end of a tool.
- To gain; to win.
- He gathers ground upon her in the chase.1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
Noun
gather (plural gathers)
- A plait or fold in cloth, made by drawing a thread through it; a pucker.
- The inclination forward of the axle journals to keep the wheels from working outward.
- The soffit or under surface of the masonry required in gathering. See gather.
- A blob of molten glass collected on the end of a blowpipe.
- 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, →ISBN
- 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, →ISBN
gather meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
gather in Hindi
- to bring together; to collect
- इकट्ठा करना ikaṭṭhā karnā, बटोरना baṭornā
gather in Tamil
- to bring together; to collect
- அள்ளு aḷḷu
gather in Urdu
- to gather
- چننا cinnā
gather in Bengali
- জমা, সংগ্রহ করা, জুটা, কুড়ান, জড় করা, পুঁজিভূত করা
More languagesFewer languages
- gather in Malayalam
- ഒരുമിച്ചുകൂടുക, ഒരുമിച്ചുകൂട്ടുക
- gather in Kannada
- ನೆರೆ, ಸೇರು, ಒಂದುಗೂಡು, ಬಳಿ
- gather in Punjabi
- ਇਕੱਠ ਕਰਨਾ, ਇਕੱਠਾ ਕਰੋ
- gather in Gujarati
- ભેગી કરવી
- gather in Odia
- ତୋଳିବା toḷibā, ଖେଞ୍ଚିବା kheñcibā
- gather in Sanskrit
- उच्चि ucci, समाकुरुते samākurute, वृक्ते vṛkte
- gather in Arabic
- جَمَعَ jamaʕa
- gather in Indonesian
- mengumpulkan
- gather in Persian
- جمع کردن jam' kardan
- gather in Thai
- รวบรวม rûap ruam
- gather in Vietnamese
- gom, gom góp
Examples of gather in a sentence
- Thaddeus and every year thousands of Armenians gather there for prayer.2010, “Ardebil, East and West Azerbaijan Provinces”, in F. Ghani, transl., Iran The Ancient Land in Persian, English & German, 9th edition...
- 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:
Synonyms of gather
Forms of gather
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | gathers |
| present participle | gathering |
| past participle | gathered |
| past | gathered |
| alternative regional (obsolete) | gether |
| Noun | |
| plural | gathers |
Origin of gather
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”).
Words formed from gather
- a closed mouth gathers no feet
- begather
- be gathered to one's fathers
- chip and gather
- chip-and-gather
- forgather
- gatherable
- gather dust
- gatherer
- gathering board
- gathering coal
- gathering hoop
- gather oneself
- gather oneself together
- gather one's thoughts
- gather one's wits
- gather pace
- gather rosebuds
- gather speed
- gather steam
- gather strength
- gather up
- gather way
- gather wool
- hunter-gather
- hunter-gathering
- ingather
- light-gathering power
- misgather
- omnium-gatherum
- regather
- together
- upgather
- wool-gather
- woolgather
- wool-gathering
- gathering iron
Phrases with gather
Words that rhyme with gather
Questions about gather
- What does gather mean?
- Gather means to collect normally separate things.
- What is gather in Hindi?
- Gather in Hindi is इकट्ठा करना (ikaṭṭhā karnā), बटोरना (baṭornā). See Gather meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use gather in a sentence?
- Thaddeus and every year thousands of Armenians gather there for prayer.
- What part of speech is gather?
- Gather can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce gather?
- Gather is pronounced /ˈɡæðə/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of gather?
- The past tense of gather is gathered.
Words near gather in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gather (page history and authors); چننا (Urdu) (page history and authors); gather (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gather (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gather (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gather (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gather (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ଖେଞ୍ଚିବା (Odia) (page history and authors); उच्चि (Sanskrit) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-gather.ogg.
Cite this entry: “gather.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gather. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.