collect
1 Americanverb (used with object)
-
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.
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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.
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Archaic. to infer.
verb (used without object)
-
to gather together; assemble.
The students collected in the assembly hall.
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to accumulate.
Rainwater collected in the barrel.
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to receive payment (often followed byon ).
He collected on the damage to his house.
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to gather or bring together books, stamps, coins, etc., usually as a hobby.
He's been collecting for years.
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Manège. (of a horse) to come into a collected attitude.
adjective
noun
verb
-
to gather together or be gathered together
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to accumulate (stamps, books, etc) as a hobby or for study
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(tr) to call for or receive payment of (taxes, dues, etc)
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(tr) to regain control of (oneself, one's emotions, etc) as after a shock or surprise
he collected his wits
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(tr) to fetch; pick up
collect your own post
he collected the children after school
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slang to receive large sums of money, as from an investment
he really collected when the will was read
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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:
A machine can collect, compare and collate tremendous amounts of information, but it can’t do the thing that matters most of all—decide what has genuine value for human lives.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
She said she serves as president of ASF Solutions, from which she takes her salary, and that R&K Mgmt doesn’t currently have any revenue and she doesn’t collect a salary from the firm.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
It's only in flight that we can really collect performance data.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
Police began escorting residents and campers back to properties and campsites to collect personal belongings on Sunday.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
There, they would be able to collect flour, sugar, and other provisions, as well as explosives and fuel.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
The material then collects in a spinning disk around the black hole.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 18, 2026
Its holding is worth about $115 million at the current stock price — peanuts for a company that collects revenue of about $5 billion a year.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
Andrew Gula, a petition committee member and volunteer who collects signatures at state festivals, said that the public response has been overwhelmingly positive.
From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026
The bill will be 9.4% higher than last year’s holiday cookout, according to Datasembly, a company that collects prices for retailers.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
He collects his laptops and his thermos and goes inside, with CPU trotting after him.
From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko
One of them was a recently collected 640-meter-long core from the United Kingdom.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026
The only major straits where a toll is still collected are the "Turkish Straits" of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, which are governed by earlier agreements, signed in Montreux in 1936.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
"Our specimens give the location and date at which they were collected helping us to piece together patterns of biodiversity change over the last two centuries."
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
Concern over the data collected by telematics and other companies has been driven by breaches, illegal sales and the growing ability to “re-identify” the source of the data even when it has been anonymized.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
The third child I collected affected me the most.
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
The glory would be in seeing how quickly Nicolson could hustle a new and alarmingly large Bentley Continental GT S up the driveway without collecting any hay bales.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
Separately, Boris Nadezhdin has been convicted of "displaying extremist symbols", a ruling that bars him from collecting signatures for parliamentary elections in September.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
Reasons for the fake posts included wanting to give the appearance that a company was growing, and collecting resumes for later.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026
By collecting observations from different landers, engine types, propellants, and landing locations, scientists hope to improve computer models that predict dust erosion and debris movement.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 14, 2026
Garbage had been piling up ever since the town ran out of money to pay for collecting it.
From Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm
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.
