collect
Formscollects, collecting, collected
Formscollects, collecting, collected
Pluralcollects
- 1To bring many things together into one place.
Like picking up scattered toys and putting them all in one box.
Volunteers worked all weekend to collect food for hungry families.
The students collected hundreds of bottle caps for the art project.
Similargather, amass, accumulate, assemble, compile
Oppositescatter, distribute
- 2
- 3To get and keep many things of one kind, often because you enjoy it.
Like saving all your favorite trading cards in one special album.
They collect old coins whenever they travel somewhere new.
He collects vintage stamps from every country he visits.
Note
- 4To go and get someone or something from a place.
Like swinging by a friend's house to pick them up before a trip.
I'll collect the kids from school at three o'clock.
She collected her dry cleaning on the way home.
UsageSay collect someone from a place, or pick them up.
Oppositedeliver
- 5To get money that people owe, such as a debt or bill.
It took her three months to collect on the unpaid bill.
The agency collects on overdue accounts every week.
UsageSay collect on a debt or a bill.
- 6To come together in a group or build up in one place.
Like water gathering into a puddle after the rain.
Dust tends to collect under the bed if you don't clean often.
Crowds collected outside the stadium before the match.
Similargather, assemble, congregate, accumulate, pool
Less common meanings
- 7Paid for by the person who receives it, not the sender.
She made a collect call to her parents from the airport.
The studio only accepts collect shipments for returned equipment.
UsageSay a collect call, or call someone collect.
Similarreverse-charge
Oppositeprepaid
- 8In a way where the person receiving it pays the cost.
Call me collect if you run out of money on the trip.
He shipped the parcel collect to save himself the cost.
UsageIt goes after the verb: call me collect.
- 9To make yourself calm again or get your thoughts clear, used with yourself, your thoughts or your wits.
Take a minute to collect yourself before you go on stage.
She stopped and collected her thoughts before she answered the question.
UsageSay collect yourself, not just collect, when you mean calm down.
Note
- 10A short prayer used in a church service, often just before a Bible reading.
Like a short opening note that sets the theme before the main reading.
The priest read the collect for the day before the lesson.
The old prayer book contains collects for every season of the year.
Note
- 11
- 12To work something out from what you have seen, read, or heard.
Whence some collect that the former word imports a plurality of persons.
1692, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions
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Practice
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Origins
This word came through Old French from Latin words meaning "to gather together," built from parts meaning "together" and "to gather."
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The word came through Old French. en.wiktionary.org
- Its Latin ancestry includes a verb meaning to gather together. en.wiktionary.org
- The Latin prefix means together. en.wiktionary.org
- The Latin verbal component means to gather. en.wiktionary.org
This came from a Church Latin word for the gathering or prayer at the start of a church service.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The prayer noun derives from Church Latin. en.wikipedia.org
- The Latin word meant a gathering. en.wikipedia.org
- The word also designated a prayer at the beginning of a church service. newadvent.org