gathers

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of gather.

   The committee gathers monthly to review the budget.

   A thick fog gathers over the valley each morning.

   Note

   The -s form carries both halves of the verb's grammar. Used transitively it takes an object: she gathers firewood, he gathers evidence. Used intransitively it stands alone, as when a crowd gathers in the square. Singular collective nouns such as committee or team take it too (the team gathers, not gather). After a modal the bare form returns: it will gather, she can gather.

   She gathers kindling before the light fails.

   A crowd gathers outside the gates.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of gather.

   Soft gathers fell from the waistband down to the hem.

   She pressed the gathers flat before stitching the panel in place.

   Note

   One plural serves several trades. To a dressmaker it means the soft folds drawn up along a thread. To a glassblower it means blobs of molten glass collected on the blowpipe. On an axle it is the forward tilt of the journals, and to a mason it is the underside of gathered masonry. A determiner or adjective (the gathers, soft gathers) marks the noun and separates it from the present-tense verb, which is spelled the same.

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