Gath"er (?), v. t. [imp. & p.
p. Gathered (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Gathering.] [OE. gaderen, AS. gaderian,
gadrian, fr. gador, geador, together, fr.
gæd fellowship; akin to E. good, D.
gaderen to collect, G. gatte husband, MHG. gate,
also companion, Goth. gadiliggs a sister's son. √29. See
Good, and cf. Together.]
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 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. To gain; to win. [Obs.]
He gathers ground upon her in the
chase.
Dryden.
7. (Arch.) 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.
8. (Naut.) 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.
Gath"er (?), v. i. 1.
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.
2. To grow larger by accretion; to
increase.
Their snowball did not gather as it
went.
Bacon.
3. To concentrate; to come to a head, as a
sore, and generate pus; as, a boil has gathered.
4. 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.
Gath"er, n. 1. A
plait or fold in cloth, made by drawing a thread through it; a
pucker.
2. (Carriage Making) The inclination
forward of the axle journals to keep the wheels from working
outward.
3. (Arch.) The soffit or under surface
of the masonry required in gathering. See Gather,
v. t., 7.
