# collector

Pronunciation: US say "kuh-LEK-tur" /kəˈlɛktɚ/; UK say "kuh-LEK-tuh" /kəˈlɛktə(ɹ)/

## Noun

1. A person, or sometimes a device, that gathers items together or builds and manages a collection.
   - Simple: Someone who gathers and keeps things they like, such as stamps or coins.
   - _The art collector loaned several paintings to the museum._
   - _Rainwater collectors on the roof channel runoff into a storage tank._
2. A person employed to gather the payments that are owed.
   - Simple: A person whose job is to gather money that people owe.
   - _The collector visited each tenant to gather the overdue rent._
   - _Tax collectors traveled from village to village recording what each household paid._
3. The terminal on a bipolar junction transistor that gathers the main charge carriers and carries the amplified output current.
   - Simple: On a transistor, the part that gathers most of the electric current passing through it.
   - _A small base current controls the much larger current flowing into the collector._
   - _The collector and emitter are doped differently to set the transistor's behavior._
4. A major sewer that gathers sewage from a number of smaller branch sewers into one main channel.
   - Simple: A large main pipe that collects waste water from many smaller sewer pipes.
   - _Each neighborhood's drains feed into a single collector running beneath the avenue._
   - _The collector carries sewage from dozens of branch lines to the treatment plant._
5. A mafia member tasked with collecting protection money from small businesses.
   - Simple: A member of the mafia whose job is to take protection money from small shops and businesses.
   - _The collector worked his way down the street, squeezing each storekeeper for his weekly cut._
   - _Local shop owners feared the collector who enforced the gang's demands._
6. A compiler of books: a person who gathers scattered passages and arranges them together in one volume.
   - Simple: A person who gathers scattered writings and puts them together into a single book.
   - _The collector assembled fragments of medieval verse into a single annotated edition._
   - _Working for years, the collector drew scattered sermons together into one printed book._
7. A holder of a Bachelor of Arts at Oxford, formerly appointed to supervise certain scholastic exercises during Lent.
   - Simple: Long ago at Oxford, a graduate chosen to oversee certain school exercises during Lent.
   - _Appointed collector for the term, he presided over the disputations held throughout Lent._
   - _The collector summoned the bachelors to the hall for their scholastic exercises._

## Origin

From Middle English collectour, from Anglo-Norman collectour, from Late Latin collector, ultimately from Latin colligō ("to gather together").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/collector (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).