Word.ws English Dictionary

gather strength

gather strength verb: to build up the motivation to do something difficult.

Verb

gather strength (third-person singular simple present gathers strength, present participle gathering strength, simple past and past participle gathered strength)

  1. To build up the motivation to do something difficult.
  2. To become more effective.
    • The campaign's strategy is gathering strength.
    • Does this mean that freedom is valued only when it is lost, that the world must everywhere go through a dark phase of socialist totalitarianism before the forces of freedom can gather strength anew?1949, F. A. Hayek, “The Intellectuals and Socialism”, in University of Chicago Law Review, volume 16, number 3, Chicago: University of Chicago, →DOI, page 432

Forms of gather strength

third-person singular presentgathers strength
present participlegathering strength
past participlegathered strength
pastgathered strength

Questions about gather strength

What does gather strength mean?
Gather strength means to build up the motivation to do something difficult.
What part of speech is gather strength?
Gather strength is a verb.
What is the past tense of gather strength?
The past tense of gather strength is gathered strength.

Words near gather strength in the dictionary

  1. gather oneself together
  2. gather pace
  3. gather rosebuds
  4. gather speed
  5. gather steam
  6. gather strength
  7. gather up
  8. gather up one's courage
  9. gather way
  10. gather wool
  11. gather'd

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gather strength (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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