collected

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of collect.

   The museum collected rare manuscripts over several decades.

   All the survey data was collected before the deadline.

   Note

   A regular verb, so one spelling does both jobs: the museum collected manuscripts; the data was collected; she has collected stamps for years. Before a noun the participle leans toward an adjective, as in Rudolf M. Schuster's "personally collected material" (1992), plants gathered by the botanist's own hand. In older English it could also mean inferred: what one had collected from what was said was a conclusion.

2. 2
   adjective

   Calm and composed, remaining emotionally steady and mentally focused.

   Like a pilot who keeps a steady voice while the plane hits turbulence.

   The witness remained remarkably collected throughout the cross-examination.

   Despite the chaos backstage, the performer walked out looking calm and collected.

   Similarcalm, composed, cool, relaxed, placid

   Oppositeflustered, agitated, frazzled

   Note

   Composure pictured as a mind gathered in rather than scattered. The word likes company: cool and collected, calm and collected. Joseph Conrad's "The Heart of Darkness" (1899) has a man become "very cool and collected all at once," and Letitia Elizabeth Landon in 1834 makes Francesca "perfectly collected." Unlike the "gathered" sense, it grades freely (more collected, most collected) and welcomes intensifiers like perfectly or remarkably.

3. 3
   adjective

   Brought or gathered together into a single place, group, or set.

   Like scattered puzzle pieces swept into a single box.

   Her collected essays were published in a single volume.

   The collected rainwater was stored in barrels for the dry season.

   Similarcompiled, bunched

   Oppositescattered, dispersed

   Note

   The publishing sense lives in a fixed phrase: the collected works of Charles Dickens, someone's collected essays. In both, an author's scattered writings are gathered into one set. Unlike the "calm" meaning, this sense does not grade. One edition cannot be more collected than another, so more collected and most collected belong only to composure.

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