collect.
To gather together; amass.
Meaning & usage
To gather together; amass.
Suzanne collected all the papers she had laid out.
The team uses special equipment to collect data on temperature, wind speed and rainfall.
To get; particularly, get from someone.
A bank collects a monthly payment on a client's new car loan. A mortgage company collects a monthly payment on a house.
To accumulate (a number of similar or related objects), particularly for a hobby or recreation.
John Henry collects stamps.
I don't think he collects as much as hoards.
To pick up or fetch
Can you collect me from the airport?
To form a conclusion; to deduce, infer. (Compare gather, get.)
To collect payments.
He had a lot of trouble collecting on that bet he made.
To come together in a group or mass.
The rain collected in puddles.
To infer; to conclude.
To collide with or crash into (another vehicle or obstacle).
The truck veered across the central reservation and collected a car that was travelling in the opposite direction.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English collecten, a borrowing from Old French collecter, from Medieval Latin collectare (“to collect money”), from Latin collecta (“a collection of money, in Late Latin a meeting, assemblage, in Medieval Latin a tax, also an assembly for prayer, a prayer”), feminine of collectus, past participle of colligere, conligere (“to gather together, collect, consider, conclude, infer”), from com- (“together”) + legere (“to gather”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather, collect”).
To be paid for by the recipient, as a telephone call or a shipment.
It was to be a collect delivery, but no-one was available to pay.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English collecten, a borrowing from Old French collecter, from Medieval Latin collectare (“to collect money”), from Latin collecta (“a collection of money, in Late Latin a meeting, assemblage, in Medieval Latin a tax, also an assembly for prayer, a prayer”), feminine of collectus, past participle of colligere, conligere (“to gather together, collect, consider, conclude, infer”), from com- (“together”) + legere (“to gather”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather, collect”).
With payment due from the recipient.
I had to call collect.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English collecten, a borrowing from Old French collecter, from Medieval Latin collectare (“to collect money”), from Latin collecta (“a collection of money, in Late Latin a meeting, assemblage, in Medieval Latin a tax, also an assembly for prayer, a prayer”), feminine of collectus, past participle of colligere, conligere (“to gather together, collect, consider, conclude, infer”), from com- (“together”) + legere (“to gather”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather, collect”).
The prayer said before the reading of the epistle lesson, especially one found in a prayerbook, as with the Book of Common Prayer.
He used the day's collect as the basis of his sermon.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English collecte, from Ecclesiastical Latin collēcta (“assembly; collect”), originally designating the gathering at the beginning of a liturgical celebration.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.