collector

[ kuh-lek-ter ]
See synonyms for collector on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a person or thing that collects.

  2. a person employed to collect debts, duties, taxes, etc.

  1. a person who collects books, paintings, stamps, shells, etc., especially as a hobby.

  2. Electricity. a device for accumulating current from contact conductors.

  3. Electronics. an electrode in a transistor or vacuum tube for collecting electrons, ions, or holes.

  4. Metallurgy. promoter (def. 5).

  5. Energy. solar collector.

Origin of collector

1
1375–1425; late Middle English (<Anglo-French ) <Medieval Latin, equivalent to Latin colleg- (variant stem of colligere;see collect1) + -tor-tor

Other words from collector

  • col·lec·tor·ship, col·lec·tor·ate, noun
  • pre·col·lec·tor, noun
  • sub·col·lec·tor, noun
  • sub·col·lec·tor·ship, noun
  • un·der·col·lec·tor, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use collector in a sentence

  • The Collectorship of this port is the best paying office within the gift of the Government.

  • Ludwell, whose conduct had been especially obnoxious, was ousted from the collectorship of York River.

    Virginia under the Stuarts 1607-1688 | Thomas J. Wertenbaker
  • The Collectorship at Whitehaven (a more lucrative office) was afterwards offered to Wordsworth, and declined.

  • It made it possible for them to dictate appointments more important than their own, even to the collectorship itself.

    Uncle Sam Detective | William Atherton Du Puy
  • He was succeeded in the collectorship by Edward Winslow, who held the office till the evacuation of Boston.

British Dictionary definitions for collector

collector

/ (kəˈlɛktə) /


noun
  1. a person or thing that collects

  2. a person employed to collect debts, rents, etc

  1. the head of a district administration in India

  2. a person who collects or amasses objects as a hobby

  3. electronics the region in a transistor into which charge carriers flow from the base

Derived forms of collector

  • collectorship, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012