GATH'ER, v.t.

A plait or fold in cloth, made by drawing.

1. To collect; to unite; to increase; to be condensed. The clouds gather in the west.
2. To increase; to grow larger by accretion of like matter. Their snow-ball did not gather as it went Bacon.
3. To assemble. The people gather fast.
4. To generate pus or matter. [See Gathering.]

1. To bring together; to collect a number of separate things into one place or into one aggregate body. Gather stones: and they took stones, and made a heap. Gen. xxxi.
2. To get in harvest: to reap or cut and bring into barns or stores. Levit. xxv. 20.
3. To pick up; to glean; to get in small parcels and bring together. Gather out the stones. Is. lxii. He must gather up money by degrees. Locke.
4. To pluck; to collect by cropping, picking, or plucking. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Matth. vii.
5. To assemble; to congregate; to bring persons into one place. Ezek. xxii. 19.
6. To collect in abundance; to accumulate; to amass. I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings. Eccles. ii.
7. To select and take; to separate from others and bring together. Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the heathen. Ps. cvi.
8. To sweep together. The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind. Matth. xiii.
9. To bring into one body or interest. Yet will I gather others to him. Is. lvi.
10. To draw together from a state of expansion or diffusion; to contract. Gathering his flowing robe he seemed to stand, / In act to speak, and graceful stretch'd his hand. Pope.
11. To gain. He gathers ground upon her in the chase. Dryden.
12. To pucker; to plait.
13. To deduce by inference; to collect or learn by reasoning. From what I hear I gather that he was present. After he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us to preach the Gospel to them. Acts xvi.
14. To coil as a serpent. To gather breath, to have respite. [Obs.] Spenser.

1. To bring together; to collect, as a number of separate things, into one place, or into one aggregate body; to assemble; to muster; to congregate.
   
   

   And Belgium's capital had gathered them
   Her beauty and her chivalry. Byron.

   When he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together. Matt. ii. 4.

2. To come together; to collect; to unite; to become assembled; to congregate.
   
   

   When small humors gather to a gout. Pope.

   Tears from the depth of some divine despair
   Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes. Tennyson.

3. A plait or fold in cloth, made by drawing a thread through it; a pucker.
4. To pick out and bring together from among what is of less value; to collect, as a harvest; to harvest; to cull; to pick off; to pluck.
   
   

   A rose just gathered from the stalk. Dryden.

   Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Matt. vii. 16.

   Gather us from among the heathen. Ps. cvi. 47.

5. To grow larger by accretion; to increase.
   
   

   Their snowball did not gather as it went. Bacon.

6. The inclination forward of the axle journals to keep the wheels from working outward.
7. To accumulate by collecting and saving little by little; to amass; to gain; to heap up.
   
   

   He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor. Prov. xxviii. 8.

   To pay the creditor . . . he must gather up money by degrees. Locke.

8. To concentrate; to come to a head, as a sore, and generate pus; as, a boil has gathered.
9. The soffit or under surface of the masonry required in gathering. See Gather, v. t., 7.
10. To bring closely together the parts or particles of; to contract; to compress; to bring together in folds or plaits, as a garment; also, to draw together, as a piece of cloth by a thread; to pucker; to plait; as, to gather a ruffle.
    
    

    Gathering his flowing robe, he seemed to stand
    In act to speak, and graceful stretched his hand. Pope.

11. To collect or bring things together.
    
    

    Thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strewed. Matt. xxv. 26.

12. To derive, or deduce, as an inference; to collect, as a conclusion, from circumstances that suggest, or arguments that prove; to infer; to conclude.
    
    

    Let me say no more!
    Gather the sequel by that went before. Shak.

13. To gain; to win.
    
    
    [Obs.]

    He gathers ground upon her in the chase. Dryden.

14. To bring together, or nearer together, in masonry, as where the width of a fireplace is rapidly diminished to the width of the flue, or the like.
15. To haul in; to take up; as, to gather the slack of a rope.
    
    

    To be gathered to one's people, or to one's fathers to die. Gen. xxv. 8. -- To gather breath, to recover normal breathing after being out of breath; to get breath; to rest. Spenser. -- To gather one's self together, to collect and dispose one's powers for a great effort, as a beast crouches preparatory to a leap. -- To gather way (Naut.), to begin to move; to move with increasing speed.