Collect /(kŏl*lĕkt")/

Col·lect

Collect

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Collected; p. pr. & vb. n. Collecting

  1. To gather into one body or place; to assemble or bring together; to obtain by gathering.
    A band of men Collected choicely from each country.
    'Tis memory alone that enriches the mind, by preserving what our labor and industry daily collect.
    — Watts.
  2. To demand and obtain payment of, as an account, or other indebtedness; as, to collect taxes.
  3. To infer from observed facts; to conclude from premises. [Archaic.]
    Which sequence, I conceive, is very ill collected.

Phrases & Compounds
To collect one's self
to recover from surprise, embarrassment, or fear; to regain self-control.

Collect

v. i.
  1. To assemble together; as, the people collected in a crowd; to accumulate; as, snow collects in banks.
  2. To infer; to conclude. [Archaic]
    Whence some collect that the former word imports a plurality of persons.

Collect

n.
  1. A short, comprehensive prayer, adapted to a particular day, occasion, or condition, and forming part of a liturgy.
    The noble poem on the massacres of Piedmont is strictly a collect in verse.