v. i. 1. To come together; to collect; to unite; to become assembled; to congregate. [ 1913 Webster ]

When small humors gather to a gout. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To grow larger by accretion; to increase. [ 1913 Webster ]

Their snowball did not gather as it went. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To concentrate; to come to a head, as a sore, and generate pus; as, a boil has gathered. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To collect or bring things together. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strewed. Matt. xxv. 26. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Gathered p. pr. & vb. n. Gathering. ] [ OE. gaderen, AS. gaderian, gadrian, fr. gador, geador, together, fr. gæd fellowship; akin to E. good, D. gaderen to collect, G. gatte husband, MHG. gate, also companion, Goth. gadiliggs a sister's son. √29. See Good, and cf. Together. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. To bring together; to collect, as a number of separate things, into one place, or into one aggregate body; to assemble; to muster; to congregate. [ 1913 Webster ]

And Belgium's capital had gathered them
Her beauty and her chivalry. Byron. [ 1913 Webster ]

When he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together. Matt. ii. 4. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To pick out and bring together from among what is of less value; to collect, as a harvest; to harvest; to cull; to pick off; to pluck. [ 1913 Webster ]

A rose just gathered from the stalk. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Matt. vii. 16. [ 1913 Webster ]

Gather us from among the heathen. Ps. cvi. 47. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To accumulate by collecting and saving little by little; to amass; to gain; to heap up. [ 1913 Webster ]

He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor. Prov. xxviii. 8. [ 1913 Webster ]

To pay the creditor . . . he must gather up money by degrees. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To bring closely together the parts or particles of; to contract; to compress; to bring together in folds or plaits, as a garment; also, to draw together, as a piece of cloth by a thread; to pucker; to plait; as, to gather a ruffle. [ 1913 Webster ]

Gathering his flowing robe, he seemed to stand
In act to speak, and graceful stretched his hand. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To derive, or deduce, as an inference; to collect, as a conclusion, from circumstances that suggest, or arguments that prove; to infer; to conclude. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let me say no more!
Gather the sequel by that went before. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. To gain; to win. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

He gathers ground upon her in the chase. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. (Arch.) To bring together, or nearer together, in masonry, as where the width of a fireplace is rapidly diminished to the width of the flue, or the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. (Naut.) To haul in; to take up; as, to gather the slack of a rope. [ 1913 Webster ]

To be gathered to one's people or
To be gathered to one's fathers to die. Gen. xxv. 8. --
To gather breath, to recover normal breathing after being out of breath; to get one's breath; to rest. Spenser. --
To gather one's self together, to collect and dispose one's powers for a great effort, as a beast crouches preparatory to a leap. --
To gather way (Naut.), to begin to move; to move with increasing speed. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A plait or fold in cloth, made by drawing a thread through it; a pucker. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Carriage Making) The inclination forward of the axle journals to keep the wheels from working outward. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Arch.) The soffit or under surface of the masonry required in gathering. See Gather, v. t., 7. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Capable of being gathered or collected; deducible from premises. [ R. ] Godwin. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who gathers or collects. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Sewing Machine) An attachment for making gathers in the cloth. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Assembling; collecting; used for gathering or concentrating. [ 1913 Webster ]

Gathering board (Bookbinding), a table or board on which signatures are gathered or assembled, to form a book. Knight. --
Gathering coal, a lighted coal left smothered in embers over night, about which kindling wood is gathered in the morning. --
Gathering hoop, a hoop used by coopers to draw together the ends of barrel staves, to allow the hoops to be slipped over them. --
Gathering peat. (a) A piece of peat used as a gathering coal, to preserve a fire. (b) In Scotland, a fiery peat which was sent round by the Borderers as an alarm signal, as the fiery cross was by the Highlanders. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act of collecting or bringing together. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That which is gathered, collected, or brought together; as: (a) A crowd; an assembly; a congregation. (b) A charitable contribution; a collection. (c) A tumor or boil suppurated or maturated; an abscess. [ 1913 Webster ]