gather 
A dress of rose-colored satin, very short, and as full in 
tlie skirt as it rould lie gathered, replaced the brown frock 
she had previously worn. Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, xiv. 
5. In building, to contract or close in, as a drain 
or chimney. 6. To acquire or gain, with or 
without effort ; accumulate ; win. 
No Snow-ball ever gathered Greatness so fast by rolling 
as his [the Duke of Hereford's] forces encreased by man-h- 
int; forward. Baker, Chronicles, p. 150. 
He gathers ground upon her in the chase. Dryden. 
7. To accumulate by saving and bringing to- 
gether; amass. 
I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar 
treasure of kings. Eccl. ii. 8. 
I waste but little. I have gather'd much. 
Fletcher, Rule a Wife, i. 6. 
Whereas in a land one doth consume and waste, 
Tis fit another be to gather in as fast. 
Drayttm, Polyolbion, iii. 364. 
8. To collect or learn by observation or reason- 
ing; infer; conclude. 
Let me say no more ! 
Gather the sequel by that went before. 
Shak., C. of E., i. 1. 
[He] thereupon gathered that it might signify her error 
in denying inherent righteousness. 
Winthrop, Hist. New England, I. 320. 
Presently the words Jamaica, Kingston, Spanish Town, 
indicated the West Indies as his residence ; and it was 
with no little surprise I gathered, ere long, that he had 
there first seen and become acquainted with Mr. Rochester. 
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, xviii. 
9. To bring into order ; arrange; settle. 
Will you gather up your wits a little, 
And hear me? 
Fleteher and Rowley, Maid in the Mill, iii. 1. 
Who take[s] upon him such a charge as this, 
Must come with pure thoughts and a gather d mind. 
Beau, and Fl., Knight of Malta, i. 3. 
10. In glass-manuf., to collect from the pot (a 
mass of molten glass) on the end of an iron 
tube, preparatory to blowing. This operation 
is performed by a workman called a gatherer. 
See gatherer, 6. 
In the liquid state, glass can be poured or ladled di- 
rectly from the crucible ; in the viscous state, it can be 
gathered or coiled on the heated end of an iron rod. 
Glass-making, p. 12. 
A piece of pale greenish sheet-glass transferred, then in 
the semi-fluid state, ... to a small pot in which it was 
maintained during four or five hours at a temperature 
barely sufficient to admit of its being gathered. 
Proc. Roy. Soc., XXXIX. 100. 
To be gathered to one's fathers. See father. To gath- 
er aft a sheet (naut.), to haul in the slack of a sheet. 
To gather breath, to take breath ; pause to rest or re- 
flect ; have respite. To gather ground. See ground! . 
To gather one's self up or together, to collect all 
one's powers or faculties for a strong effort, as a person 
when about to make a leap first contracts his limbs and 
muscles. 
I gather myself together as a man doth when he intend- 
eth to show his strength. Palsgrave. 
Gathering up my selfe by further consideration, I re- 
solved yet to make one trial! more. 
Cushman, quoted in Bradford's Plymouth Plantation, p. 54. 
The next vast breaker curled its edge, 
Gathering itself for a mightier leap. 
Lowell, Appledore. 
To gather up one's crumbs. See crmnft-. To gather 
way, to get headway by sail or steam, as a ship, so as to 
answer the helm. = Syn. 1. To muster. 2. To reap, cull, 
crop. 7. To hoard, neap up. 
II. intrans. 1. To collect; congregate; come 
together : as, the clouds gather in the west. 
Tears from the depth of some divine despair 
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes. 
Tennyson, Princess, iv. 
_ In the heavens the cloud of force and guile 
Was gathering dark that sent them o'er the sea 
To win new lands for their posterity. 
William, Harris, Earthly Paradise, I. 339. 
We draw near to Spalato; we see the palace and the 
campanile, and round the palace and the campanile every* 
thing gathers. E. A. Freeman, Venice, p. 220. 
2. To increase ; grow larger by accretion. 
Hate is a wrath, not shewende, 
But of long tyme gatherende. 
Gower, Coat. Amant., Iii. 
His bulky folly gathers as it goes, 
And, rolling o'er you, like a snow-ball grows. 
Dryden, Epil. to Man of Mode, 1. 19. 
For amidst them all, through century after century of 
gathering vanity and festering guilt, that white dome of 
St. Mark's had uttered in the dead ear of Venice, "Know 
thou that for all these things God will bring thee into Judg- 
ment." Raskin, Stones of Venice, II. iv. 71. 
3. To come to a head, as a sore in suppurating. 
To gather to a head, to ripen; come into a state of 
preparation for action or effect. 
Now does my project gather to a head. 
Shak., Tempest, v. 1. 
= Syn. 1. To come together, muster, cluster, 
gather (gaTH'er), . [< gather, r.] 1. A plait 
or fold in cloth held in position by a thread 
drawn through it. 
2469 
Give us laws for pantaloons, 
The length of breeches, anil the '/fritters, 
I'ort-cannons, perriwigs, and feathers. 
S. Butler, Hndibras, I. iii. 925. 
The fine-lined gathers; the tiny dots of stitches that 
held them to their delicate bindings. 
Mrs. Whitney, Leslie Goldthwaite. i. 
2. A slight forward inclination of the axle-spin- 
dle of a carriage, to insure the even running of 
the wheel. 
Axles may be set when cold to give them the proper 
"pitch " and gather at one operation. 
Sci. Amer., N. S., LVIII. 43. 
gatherable (gaTH'er-a-bl), a. [< gather + 
-aftte.] Capable of being collected, or of being 
deduced from premises. 
The priesthood of the first-born is gatherable hence, be- 
cause the Levites were appointed to the service of the 
altar, instead of the first-born, and as their Aurpop, or 
price of redemption. (Num. iii. 41.) 
T. Godwin, Moses and Aaron, i. 6. 
gatherer (gaTH'er-er), . [Early mod. E. gad- 
erer; < gather, v., + -er 1 .] 1. One who or that 
which gathers or collects: frequent in com- 
pounds: as, a t&x.-gat1terer ; a news-gatherer. 
Mathew, whiche was a toll gaderer, anon as he was called 
of God, forsoke that life and folowed Christ. 
Bp. Fisher, The Seven Penitential Psalms, Ps. xxxii. 
Eumenes committed the several cities of his govern- 
ment to his most trusty friends, and appointed them gar- 
risons, with judges, and gatherers of his tributes, such as 
pleased him best, without any interposing of Perdiccas. 
Abp. Ussher, Annals. 
Persons . . . going about as patent-gatherers, or gather- 
ers of alms under pretence of loss by fire or other casu- 
alty. Fielding, Causes of the Increase of Robbers. 
Specifically 2. One who gets in a crop: as, 
a D.a,y-gatherer. 3. In bookbinding, one who 
collects the printed sheets of a book in con- 
secutive order. 4. One who makes plaits or 
folds in a garment, or a contrivance in a sew- 
ing-machine for effecting this. 5t. Formerly, 
the man who took the money at the entrance 
to a theater. Nares. 
There is one Jhon Russell, that by youre apoyntment 
was made a gatherer with us. A lleyn Papers (ed. Collier). 
6. In glass-mamtf,, a workman who collects a 
mass of molten glass from the pot, on the end 
of an iron rod or pipe, usually as a preliminary 
to blowing. 
The metal being brought to a proper condition for work- 
ing, the gatherer dips into the pot of metal an iron pipe. 
Eneyc. Brit., X. 680. 
gathering (gaTH'er-ing), n. [< ME. gadering, 
gadring, gedering, gedring, < AS. gaderung, ge- 
gaderung, a gathering, congregation, < gaderian, 
gather: see gather, v.~\ 1. The act of assem- 
bling, collecting, or making a collection, as of 
money. 
Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay 
by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be 
no gatherings when I come. 1 Cor. xvi. 2. 
I'll make a gathering for him, I, a purse, and put the 
poor slave in fresh rags. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iii. 1. 
2. That which is gathered together, (a) A crowd; 
an assembly; specifically, a concourse of spectators or 
participants for some purpose of common interest. 
But wi' young Waters, that brave knight, 
There came a gay gatherin'. 
Young Waters (Child's Ballads, III. 301). 
At the time of which my story treats, there was a great 
family gathering at the castle. 
Irving, Sketch-Book, p. 193. 
(6) A collection or assemblage of anything ; a contribu- 
tion. 
Eueryman did eate hys fill, and there was nothyng lack- 
yng, insomuche that seuen baskettes wer fylled of the 
gatheringis of scrappes which remayned. 
J. Udall, On Mat. xxv. 
(c) An inflamed and suppurating swelling, (d) A wooden 
construction about a scuttle in a roof, (e) In building, a 
contraction of any passage, as of a drain, or of a fireplace 
at its junction with the flue. 
3. The act of making gathers, or of giving shape 
to a garment, as a skirt, by means of gathers. 4. 
In glass-manuf., the act of coiling or collecting 
a mass of molten glass in the viscous state on 
the end of a rod or tube. 5. The collection in 
proper order of the folded sections, plates, or 
maps of an unbound book or pamphlet Gath- 
ering of the clans, in former times, in Scotland, a gen- 
eral mustering of clans on some great emergency, as for 
a warlike expedition or for the common defense against 
an invasion ; hence, any general gathering of persons for 
the accomplishment of some purpose of common interest. 
gathering-board (gaTH'er-ing-bord), n. A 
table, commonly in the shape of a horseshoe, 
on which the leaves of a book to be bound are 
laid in convenient positions for the gatherers 
who collect the signatures to make up the book. 
Sometimes the table is circular, and made to travel round 
its center, thus bringing the signatures in turn to the 
gatherers. 
gau 
gathering-coal (gaTH'er-ing-kol), . A large 
piece of coal used for the same purpose as a 
gathering-peat. See gatliering-pcat, 2. 
"Hout, . . . lassie," said Robin, "hae done wi' your 
clavers, and put on the gathering-coal." 
Petticoat-Tales, I. 219. 
gathering-hoop (gaTH'er-ing-hop), n. A hoop 
used by coopers for drawing in the ends of the 
staves of a barrel or cask so that the perma- 
nent hoop may be slipped on. 
gathering-iron (gaTH'er-ing-i"ern), n. In glass- 
manuf., a gathering-rod. 
If to a part of the bulb remote from the gathering-iron 
a second iron be attached by a seal of glass, the bulb may 
be prolonged into [a] tube. Glass-making, p. 12. 
gathering-note (gaTH'er-ing-not),n. In chant- 
ing, the arbitrary pause often made on the last 
syllable of a recited portion, to enable all the 
singers to begin the cadence together. 
gathering-pallet (gaTH'er-ing-paPet), n. A 
pallet forming part of the striking mechanism 
of a clock, and serving to arrest its motion at 
the proper moment. 
That little piece called the gathering-pallet, which is 
squared on to the prolonged arbor of the third wheel, 
gathers up the teeth of the rack. 
Sir E. Beckett, Clocks and Watches, p. 166. 
gathering-peat (garH'er-ing-pet), n. 1+. A 
fiery peat which in former times was sent 
round by the borderers of Scotland to alarm 
the country in time of danger, as the fiery cross 
was sent by the Highlanders. 2. A peat put 
into a fire at night, with the hot embers gath- 
ered about it, to keep the fire till morning. 
[Scotch in both senses.] 
gathering-rod (gaTH'er-ing-rod), n. In glass- 
manuf., an iron rod upon which the viscous 
glass is gathered and coiled. Glass-making, 
p. 12. 
gathering-string (gain ' er -ing - string), n. A 
cord or ribbon usually run through a shirr or 
tuck in a garment or other article, for the pur- 
pose of drawing it up into folds or puckers. 
gathering-thread (gaiH'er-ing-thred), . In 
sewing, the thread by which gathers are made 
and held. 
gati (gii'ti), n. [E. Ind.] A cotton diaper cloth 
made in India. 
Gatling gun. See gun. 
gatten-tree (gat'n-tre), n. Same as gaiter-tree. 
gatter, gatter-tree (gat'er, -tre), n. Same as 
gaiter-tree. 
g'atteridge, gattridge (gat'er-ij, -rij), . Same 
as gaiter-tree. 
gattie (gat'i), n. [E. Ind.] An East Indian 
soluble gum, much like gum arabic. 
gattine (ga-ten'), n. [F.] A disease of the 
silkworm of commerce, Sericaria mori. By some 
authorities it is considered to be a kind of flaccidity or 
flacherie, and by others a mild form or an incipient stage 
of pebrine in which the characteristic corpuscles of the 
latter have not developed. 
Owing to the ravages of gattine, the silk industry has 
greatly declined since 1864. Encyc. Brit., XVII. 613. 
gat-tothedt, [ME., only in the following 
passages ; either < 170*, older form of got, E. goat, 
+ tothed, toothed, or an error for "gap-tothed or 
"gag-tothed : see gap and gag-tooth.'] A word 
of dubious form and meaning, in the following 
passages, either 'having a goatish or lickerish 
tooth,' that is, 'wanton, lustful,' or ' having gaps 
in one's teeth,' or 'having projecting teeth.' 
See etymology. 
Sche cowde moche of wandryng by the weye. 
Gat-totfied was sche, sothly for to seye. 
Chaucer, Gen. Prol. to C. T., 1. 467. 
Gat-tothid I was, and that bicam me weel. 
Chaucer, Prol. to Wife of Bath's Tale, I. 603. 
gattridge, . See gatter idge. 
gattus (gat'us), . [ML. var. of eattus, cat: 
see cat.~\ A movable shed for service in me- 
dieval sieges: same as cat 1 , 8. 
gau (gou), n. [Or., < MHG. gou, gou, < OHGf. 
gawi, gowi, gewi = Goth, gawi, a district, coun- 
try ; prob. = AS. "ged (erroneously cited as *gd), 
a word not found, but prob. existent as the first 
element of the orig. form of E. yeoman : see yeo- 
man.'] A territorial and administrative divi- 
sion of the old Germanic state which included 
several villages or communities, and seems to 
have corresponded at first to the hundred, but 
later to a division more nearly resembling a 
modern county. The word still forms part of 
several place-names, as Oberammergra in Ba- 
varia. 
The four (marks] were in A. D. 804 made into a Gau, in 
which the archbishop of Bremen had the royal rights of 
Heerbanu and Blutbaun. Stuttvs, Const. Hist., 26. 
