collector

noun

USkuh-LEK-tur/kəˈlɛktɚ/kuh-LEK-tuh/kəˈlɛktə(ɹ)/

7 meanings of collector

1
nouncountable
Someone who gathers and keeps things they like, such as stamps or coins.
Like someone who keeps every toy from a series until they have the whole set.
My uncle is a serious stamp collector with thousands of rare ones.
Every collector at the fair wanted that signed baseball card.
Similargatherer
Note
2
nouncountable
A person whose job is to gather money that people owe.
Like the person at the gate who takes your ticket money before you go in.
The debt collector called twice about the unpaid bill.
She works as a collector for the water company.
Similargatherer, receiver
Note
3
nouncountable
On a transistor, the part that gathers most of the electric current passing through it.
Like the bottom of a funnel, where everything that pours in is gathered together.
The collector carries the strong current out of the transistor.
Engineers connected the collector to the power supply.
Oppositeemitter
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4
nouncountable
A large main pipe that collects waste water from many smaller sewer pipes.
Like a big river that many small streams flow into.
The city built a new collector to handle waste from the growing suburb.
Heavy rain overwhelmed the main collector and flooded the street.
Similarmain
5
nouncountable
A member of the mafia whose job is to take protection money from small shops and businesses.
Like a bully who makes smaller kids hand over their lunch money.
The collector came by the shop every Friday for his envelope of cash.
Nobody dared refuse the collector when he asked for protection money.
Similarbagman, enforcer
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6
nouncountable
A person who gathers scattered writings and puts them together into a single book.
Like putting your favorite recipes from many books into one notebook.
As a collector, she pulled the best folk tales into one big book.
The collector gathered old poems from many sources into a single volume.
Similarcompiler, editor, anthologist
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7
nounhistoricalcountable
Long ago at Oxford, a graduate chosen to oversee certain school exercises during Lent.
Like a senior student picked to run a school event for one season.
Each spring the new collector took charge of the Lent exercises at the college.
Whereupon he soon after appointed A. W. his collector in Austins; which office he kept till he was admitted Mr. of arts
1655, Anthony Wood, diariesHere, collector means a graduate chosen to oversee certain school exercises during Lent.
Note

Practice

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Origin

From Latin colligō, meaning "to gather together," which came into English through Anglo-Norman and Middle English.