(collects, collecting, collected)
Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
1.
If you collect a number of things, you bring them together from several places or from several people.
Two young girls were collecting firewood...
1.5 million signatures have been collected.
= gather
VERB: V n, V n
2.
If you collect things, such as stamps or books, as a hobby, you get a large number of them over a period of time because they interest you.
One of Tony's hobbies was collecting rare birds.
VERB: V n
• collecting
...hobbies like stamp collecting and fishing.
N-UNCOUNT: with supp, oft n N
3.
When you
collect someone or something, you go and get them from the place where they are waiting for you or have been left for you. (
BRIT; in AM, usually use pick up
)
David always collects Alistair from school on Wednesdays...
After collecting the cash, the kidnapper made his escape down the disused railway line.
= pick up
VERB: V n from n, V n
4.
If a substance collects somewhere, or if something collects it, it keeps arriving over a period of time and is held in that place or thing.
Methane gas does collect in the mines around here.
...water tanks which collect rainwater from the house roof.
VERB: V prep/adv, V n, also V
5.
If something collects light, energy, or heat, it attracts it.
Like a telescope it has a curved mirror to collect the sunlight.
VERB: V n
6.
If you collect for a charity or for a present for someone, you ask people to give you money for it.
Are you collecting for charity?...
They collected donations for a fund to help military families.
VERB: V for n, V n for n, also V n
7.
If you collect yourself or collect your thoughts, you make an effort to calm yourself or prepare yourself mentally.
She paused for a moment to collect herself...
He was grateful for a chance to relax and collect his thoughts.
= compose
VERB: V pron-refl, V n
8.
A collect call is a telephone call that is paid for by the person receiving it, not the person making it. (AM)
She received a collect phone call from Alaska.
ADJ: ADJ n
•
If you call collect when you make a telephone call, the person who you are phoning pays the cost of the call and not you.
Should you lose your ticket call collect on STA's helpline.
PHRASE: V inflects