Collect | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Col-lēct', v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. COLLECTED; p. pr. & vb. n. COLLECTING.] [Lat. colligere, collectum. See COLLEAGUE.]

Sense 1. To gather into one body or place; to assemble or bring together.

A band of men. Collected choicely from each county. Shak.

’Tis memory alone that enriches the mind by preserving what our labor and industry daily collect. Watts.

Sense 2. To gather from premises; to infer as a consequence.

Which consequence, I conceive, is very ill collected. Locke.

To collect one’s self, to recover from surprise, or a disconcerted state; to regain self-control.

Synonyms— To gather; assemble; aggregate; amass; infer; deduce.

Col-lĕct', v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. 1. To be assembled together; to accumulate; as, sand or snow collects in banks. 2. To infer; to conclude. “Whence some collect that the former word imports a plurality of persons.” South.

Cŏl'lect, n.

noun

n. [L. Lat. & Lat. collecta, from colligere. See supra.] A short, comprehensive prayer, adapted to a particular day or occasion, and read together with other parts of the church service.

☞ “The use of the term being very ancient, it is difficult, if not impossible, to give any satisfactory account of its rise. Ritualists have thought that these prayers were so called because they were used in the public congregation or collection of the people, or from the fact of many petitions being here collected together in a brief summary, or because they comprehend objects of prayer collected out of the Epistles and Gospels.” Hook.