collect
1 Americanverb (used with object)
-
collects,
present (3rd person singular)
-
collected,
past participle, past
-
collecting
present participle
-
to gather together; assemble.
The professor collected the students' exams.
-
to accumulate; make a collection of.
to collect stamps.
- Antonyms:
- scatter, distribute
-
to receive or compel payment of.
to collect a bill.
-
to regain control of (oneself or one's thoughts, faculties, composure, or the like).
At the news of her promotion, she took a few minutes to collect herself.
-
to call for and take with one: They collected their mail.
He drove off to collect his guests.
They collected their mail.
-
Manège. to bring (a horse) into a collected attitude.
-
Archaic. to infer.
verb (used without object)
-
collects,
present (3rd person singular)
-
collected,
past participle, past
-
collecting
present participle
-
to gather together; assemble.
The students collected in the assembly hall.
-
to accumulate.
Rainwater collected in the barrel.
-
to receive payment (often followed byon ).
He collected on the damage to his house.
-
to gather or bring together books, stamps, coins, etc., usually as a hobby.
He's been collecting for years.
-
Manège. (of a horse) to come into a collected attitude.
adjective
noun
verb
-
to gather together or be gathered together
-
to accumulate (stamps, books, etc) as a hobby or for study
-
(tr) to call for or receive payment of (taxes, dues, etc)
-
(tr) to regain control of (oneself, one's emotions, etc) as after a shock or surprise
he collected his wits
-
(tr) to fetch; pick up
collect your own post
he collected the children after school
-
slang to receive large sums of money, as from an investment
he really collected when the will was read
-
informal (tr) to collide with; be hit by
-
the US term for cash on delivery
adverb
noun
noun
Synonym Usage
See gather.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
collectsimple
-
collectssimple
-
have collectedperfect
-
has collectedperfect
-
am collectingprogressive
-
are collectingprogressive
-
is collectingprogressive
-
have been collectingperfect progressive
-
has been collectingperfect progressive
Past
-
collectedsimple
-
had collectedperfect
-
was collectingprogressive
-
were collectingprogressive
-
had been collectingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of collect1
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Latin collēctus (past participle of colligere “to collect”), equivalent to col- “with, together” + leg- (stem of legere “to gather”) + -tus past participle suffix; see col- 1
Origin of collect2
First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English collecte, from Old French collecte, colete, and Medieval Latin collecta, short for ōrātiō ad collēctam “prayer at collection”; see origin at collect 1
Explanation
The verb collect describes gathering or bringing something together. Charity organizations often collect warm coats for people in need. Other people who want to help those in need seek monetary donations. If you volunteer for a charity, you may collect on behalf of the charity — meaning you get donations. Collect can also refer to getting payment for money that is owed. If you owe money to someone, eventually he'll find you and say, "I'm here to collect."
Vocabulary lists containing collect
Gimme, Gimme, Gimme
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"A Natural Balance" and "In My Dreams"
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Bondholders collect interest in return for lending their money, which is known as the bond yield.
From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2026
The fast-food standards have them, of course, but so do regional chains and neighborhood coffee shops: download this, order ahead, skip the line, collect points, save your usual.
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2026
"The people who used to collect things, stock up on things, or take an interest in things are gone," he added.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
The newly developed nanorobots show that it is already possible to collect bacteria, transport them, and release them at selected locations.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 18, 2026
My arm reaches out to drill down into the ground to collect a rock sample.
From "A Rover's Story" by Jasmine Warga
I think the next big opportunity will come from identifying who collects the toll after all this infrastructure gets built.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026
The cone-shaped system collects sunlight with a Fresnel lens approximately the size of a household window and channels that light into an optical fiber about as wide as a human hair.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 8, 2026
She collects material from other places, too, like dirt from her daughter’s preschool yard or sand from local beaches — anything elemental that “will really alchemize and change form in the kiln.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has described the phenomenon as a public health issue, even though his government collects billions of reais in taxes from the sector.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
Connor looks absolutely fascinated as he collects and filters water from a ravine.
From "The Sea in Winter" by Christine Day
The testing in June 2022 reportedly found Chrysotile asbestos in 10% of its samples - the same type of loose asbestos fibre claimed to be in the sample collected by Hill.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
If the data were collected at different times, for example, some of the information -- especially on a fluid process like gaining US citizenship -- could be out-of-date, he explained.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
In just 15 minutes at a Manhattan arcade, the 20-year-old college student and her boyfriend had collected three prizes from the rows of claw machines.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
To explore this nutritional mismatch, researchers compared the essential amino acid composition of honeybee tissues with pollen collected from 99 UK flowering plant species representing 26 plant families.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026
Misha asked Anya if she was okay, and she yelled that she was, and he didn’t say anything else as she collected a coat from her room.
From Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack
Lastly, a growing crowd of car enthusiasts is collecting vehicles that are remarkably normal—think Ford Tauruses, Honda Civics and Buick station wagons.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
Environmental Protection Agency to install air monitors and continue collecting date at nearby schools.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
For Martin, collecting gives him a sense of meaning: "I've had a few tragedies in my life through family and whatever else, and I think, 'enjoy life while it's here'."
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
She is one of 21 drone pilots for the OS, in charge of collecting footage to track changes on the ground.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
After collecting his papers and pistol, Guiteau made his way to the Baltimore and Potomac train station.
From "Ambushed!" by Gail Jarrow
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
