<B>gather, </B>verb, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to bring into one place or group; collect; assemble; amass. <BR> <I>Ex. to gather sticks for a fire, to gather materials for a book. He gathered his books and papers and started to school. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord (Joel 1:14). He at once gathered his forces and marched on Gloucester (John R. Green).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to collect from the place of growth; pick and collect; glean and pluck. <BR> <I>Ex. The farmers gathered their crops.</I> (SYN) harvest, garner. <DD><B> 3. </B>to get or gain little by little; acquire gradually. <BR> <I>Ex. to gather a store of knowledge. The train gathered speed as it left the station. A rolling stone gathers no moss.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>to collect or assemble (oneself, one's strength, energies, thoughts, or other resources) for an effort or to meet some emergency. <BR> <I>Ex. He had almost gone by, before Hester ... could gather voice enough to attract his observation (Hawthorne).</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>(Figurative.) to put together in the mind; conclude; infer. <BR> <I>Ex. We gathered from his words that he was really much upset. We are anxious to help ... because we gather that the information that will be obtained will be valuable (London Times).</I> (SYN) deduce. <DD><B> 6. </B>to pull together in little folds and stitch. <BR> <I>Ex. The skirt is gathered at the waist.</I> <DD><B> 7. </B>to contract or wrinkle (the brow); pucker. <BR> <I>Ex. She gathered her brows into a frown.</I> <DD><B> 8. </B>to draw together or closer. <BR> <I>Ex. Gather your robe around you.</I> <DD><B> 9. </B>to take. <BR> <I>Ex. to gather a person into one's arms. Cast up the highway; gather out the stones (Isaiah 62:10).</I> <DD><B> 10. </B>(Bookbinding.) to collect and place in order according to signatures (the printed, folded sheets of a book). <DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to come together into one place or assembly; congregate; assemble. <BR> <I>Ex. A crowd gathered at the scene of the accident.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to form by the coming together of material; form a mass; collect. <BR> <I>Ex. Tears gathered in her eyes. Clouds gathered as the storm approached.</I> (SYN) accumulate. <DD><B> 3. </B>to come to a head and form pus. <BR> <I>Ex. A boil is a painful swelling that gathers under the skin.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>to become contracted into wrinkles, as the brow does. <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>Often, <B>gathers.</B> one of the little folds between stitches when cloth is gathered. <DD><B> 2. </B>a contraction; drawing together. <DD><B> 3. </B>a blob of glass on the end of a blowpipe in glassmaking. <BR><I>expr. <B>gather up,</B> <DD><B> a. </B>to pick up. </I> <I>Ex. The schoolmaster took the child ... and bidding the old man gather up her little basket ... bore her away (Dickens).</I> <DD><B> b. </B>to pull together; bring into a smaller space. <BR> <I>Ex. I mounted into the window seat; gathering up my feet, I sat cross-legged like a Turk (Charlotte Bronte).</I> <DD><B> c. </B>(Dialect.) to arrest; lead away. <BR> <I>Ex. "Gather him up, boys," said the judge, "the sentence of the law must be executed!" (W. T. Thompson).</I> adj. <B>gatherable.</B> noun <B>gatherer.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="gathering">
<B>gathering, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the act of a person who gathers. <DD><B> 2. </B>that which is gathered. <BR> <I>Ex. The book represents the gatherings of years.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>a group of people met together; meeting; assembly; party; crowd. <BR> <I>Ex. We had a great family gathering last Sunday.</I> (SYN) meeting. <DD><B> 4. </B>a swelling that comes to a head and forms pus. <BR> <I>Ex. A boil is a painful gathering.</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>(Dialect.) a collection in money. <DD><B> 6. </B>(in bookbinding) the sheets that are folded and stitched into a book as one section; a collation of signatures. </DL>
<A NAME="gatheringcoal">
<B>gathering coal,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a large lump of coal or peat banked with embers at night to keep the fire until morning. </DL>
<A NAME="gatheringline">
<B>gathering line,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a pipe for sending natural gas to an extraction unit. </DL>
<A NAME="gatherum">
<B>gatherum, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Informal.) a miscellany. <BR> <I>Ex. [He] also instituted a saucily-written Monday-morning gatherum of gags, anecdotes, and other small bits that hadn't found their way into the previous week's news stories (Harper's).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="gating">
<B>gating, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (British.) the punishment of a student by restricting him to the confines of the college. </DL>
<A NAME="gatlinggun">
<B>Gatling gun,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an early type of machine gun, consisting of a cluster of barrels revolving around a central axis by a hand crank. Each barrel was automatically loaded and fired during every revolution of the cluster. </DL>
<B>Gatorade, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Trademark.) a soft drink containing glucose, citric acid, sodium bicarbonate, potassium chloride, and similar substances, used by athletes instead of water to replenish rapidly lost body fluids and salts. </DL>
<A NAME="gatt">
<B>GATT</B> (no periods),<DL COMPACT><DD> General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. <BR> <I>Ex. GATT is an agreement through which ... the world's major trading countries attempt to raise and lower tariffs on a reciprocal basis (Wall Street Journal).</I> </DL>
<B>gau, </B>noun, pl. <B>gaue,</B> <B>gaus.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>one of the political districts into which the Nazis divided Germany and other parts of Europe under their control. Each gau was governed by a Gauleiter. <DD><B> 2. </B>a territorial and administrative division of ancient Germany which included several villages or communities. </DL>
<A NAME="gauche">
<B>gauche, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> lacking grace or tact; awkward; clumsy. <BR> <I>Ex. His backhand is considered gauche (Newsweek).</I> (SYN) gawky, maladroit. adv. <B>gauchely.</B> noun <B>gaucheness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="gaucherie">
<B>gaucherie, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>awkwardness or tactlessness. (SYN) clumsiness. <DD><B> 2. </B>an awkward or tactless movement or act. <BR> <I>Ex. Structural gaucherie is relatively rare on our stage (Harper's).</I> (SYN) blunder. </DL>
<A NAME="gauchersdisease">
<B>Gaucher's disease,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a rare, inherited disease of infants and children, characterized by anemia and enlargement of the spleen. </DL>
<A NAME="gauchesco">
<B>gauchesco, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with a type of Spanish poetry whose character, language, and setting derive from the life of the gauchos of South America. </DL>
<A NAME="gauchist">
<B>gauchist, </B>noun. <B>=gauchiste.</B></DL>
<A NAME="gauchiste">
<B>gauchiste, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (French.) a political radical; a leftist. </DL>
<A NAME="gaucho">
<B>gaucho, </B>noun, pl. <B>-chos.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a cowboy in the southern plains of South America, usually of mixed Spanish and Indian descent. <BR><I>expr. <B>gauchos,</B> </I>baggy trousers usually reaching to, and often gathered at, the ankles, similar to those worn by South American gauchos. </DL>
<A NAME="gaud">
<B>gaud, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a cheap, showy ornament; trinket; gewgaw. <BR> <I>Ex. The dancer wore many rings, bracelets, beads, and other gauds.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a showy ceremony. <BR> <I>Ex. Among the gauds and gods of sinful Babylon ... (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="gaudeamusigitur">
<B>gaudeamus igitur,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Latin.) let us therefore be merry (the first words of a famous student song, derived probably from a medieval Latin song). </DL>
<A NAME="gaudery">
<B>gaudery, </B>noun, pl. <B>-eries.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>ostentatious show; finery. <DD><B> 2. </B>a piece of finery. </DL>
<A NAME="gaudy">
<B>gaudy</B> (1), adjective, <B>gaudier,</B> <B>gaudiest,</B> noun, pl. <B>gaudies.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>too bright and gay to be in good taste; cheap and showy. <BR> <I>Ex. gaudy jewelry. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, but not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy (Shakespeare).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>brilliantly fine or gay; showy. <BR> <I>Ex. Peacocks have gaudy plumage.</I> <DD><I>noun </I> (Obsolete.) a gaud. adv. <B>gaudily.</B> noun <B>gaudiness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="gaudy">
<B>gaudy</B> (2), noun, pl. <B>gaudies.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (British.) a festival or celebration, especially an annual college banquet. </DL>
<A NAME="gaudyday">
<B>gaudy day,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (British.) <DD><B> 1. </B>a day of rejoicing; festival or gala day. <DD><B> 2. </B>the day on which a college gaudy is held. </DL>
<A NAME="gaudydutch">
<B>gaudy Dutch,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a type of English earthenware of a colorful floral pattern, designed especially for the American market during the early 1800's. </DL>
<A NAME="gaudynight">
<B>gaudy night,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (British.) a night for celebrating. </DL>
