Word.ws English Dictionary

gathers steam

gathers steam is the third-person singular simple present indicative of gather steam.

Meaning of gather steam

Verb

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

  1. (informal, intransitive) To increase in strength, popularity, or energy.
    • He went on, “Like the term ‘Latinx,’ ‘queer’ was started by some humanities professor and slowly gathered steam. Then well-meaning radio producers and magazine editors thought, ‘Well, I guess that’s what they want to be called now!’ But I don’t remember any vote being taken.”2022 October 23, Pamela Paul, “Let’s Say Gay”, in The New York Times
    Antonyms:
    lose steam

Questions about gathers steam

What is gathers steam the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Gathers steam is the third-person singular simple present indicative of gather steam.

Words near gathers steam in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gathers steam (page history and authors); gather steam (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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