collecting

Pluralcollectings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of collect.

   The volunteers are collecting donations for the local shelter.

   Collecting rainwater helps the garden survive the dry months.

   Note

   The -ing form does two jobs. After be it builds continuous tenses (are collecting donations). As a gerund it heads a noun phrase while keeping its verb habits and taking a direct object (collecting rainwater). That object is the quick test against the hobby noun, which takes of or a modifier instead: the collecting of coins, serious collecting. It can also stand alone in the sense of gathering payments.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The hobby of seeking out and acquiring items of personal interest, then organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and looking after them.

   Serious collecting demands not just buying pieces but cataloging and storing each one.

   His interest in collecting grew from a few stamps into a vast archive.

   Note

   Most often it is a mass noun, as in stamp collecting or a passion for collecting, but it can also be counted. The plural collectings names separate acts of gathering. Melissa A Hardy and Alan Bryman's Handbook of Data Analysis (2009) sets disciplined data gathering against "the bemused collectings of a beachcomber," meaning idle, haphazard picking-up rather than method.

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