Etymology From Middle English collecten, a borrowing from Old French collecter, from Medieval Latin collectare (“to collect money”), from Latin collecta (“a collection of money, in Late Latin a meeting, assemblage, in Medieval Latin a tax, also an assembly for prayer, a prayer”), feminine of collectus, past participle of colligere, conligere (“to gather together, collect, consider, conclude, infer”), from com- (“together”) + legere (“to gather”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather, collect”).
Suzanne collected all the papers she had laid out.
The team uses special equipment to collect data on temperature, wind speed and rainfall.
2 more examples
Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame.2013 July-August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:
At first, I swept the lowest-growing plants, collecting a variety of mostly chrysomelids and curculionids and even one Agrilus sp., before moving to beating along the sunny edges of the patches of taller shrubs and collecting similar species (but no Agrilus sp.).2022 May 14, Ted C. MacRae, Cupressaceae:
2
To get; particularly, get from someone.
A bank collects a monthly payment on a client's new car loan. A mortgage company collects a monthly payment on a house.
The EPA collects emissions data from more than 20,000 industrial facilities across the country and has even developed its own state-of-the-art tool — the Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators model — to estimate the impact of toxic emissions on human health.2021 November 2, Lylla Younes, Ava Kofman, Al Shaw and Lisa Song, “Poison in the Air”, in ProPublica:
3
To accumulate (a number of similar or related objects), particularly for a hobby or recreation.
John Henry collects stamps.
I don't think he collects as much as hoards.
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My friend from school has started to collects mangas and novels recently
Over the course of 60 years, W E Hayward collected thousands of railway-related objects, including clothing, buttons, cutlery, timetables, tickets, name, number and builder's plates, books and booklets, cuttings and extracts from publications, letters, photographs and postcards.2020 June 17, Stefanie Foster, “A window into the railways of the past”, in Rail, page 54:
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To pick up or fetch
Can you collect me from the airport?
5
Archaic To form a conclusion; to deduce, infer. (Compare gather, get.)
[…] which consequence, I conceive, is very ill collected.1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book II, Chapter XVII, section 20:
From the latter passages we may collect, that the expression "he that cometh" was, with the Jews, a kind of title distinguishing the Messiahc 1725, John Walker, William Burton (of Bloomsbury), Essays and correspondence, chiefly on Scriptural subjects:
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'I collect,' said Miss Crawford, 'that Sotherton is an old place, and a place of some grandeur. In any particular style of building?'1814, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park:
the riot is so great that it is very difficult to collect what is being said.1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial, published 2007, pages 292–3:
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To collect payments.
Often with on or against
He had a lot of trouble collecting on that bet he made.
7
To come together in a group or mass.
The rain collected in puddles.
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To infer; to conclude.
Whence some collect that the former word imports a plurality of persons.1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:
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Of a vehicle or driver To collide with or crash into (another vehicle or obstacle).
The truck veered across the central reservation and collected a car that was travelling in the opposite direction.
Etymology From Middle English collecten, a borrowing from Old French collecter, from Medieval Latin collectare (“to collect money”), from Latin collecta (“a collection of money, in Late Latin a meeting, assemblage, in Medieval Latin a tax, also an assembly for prayer, a prayer”), feminine of collectus, past participle of colligere, conligere (“to gather together, collect, consider, conclude, infer”), from com- (“together”) + legere (“to gather”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather, collect”).
1
To be paid for by the recipient, as a telephone call or a shipment.
It was to be a collect delivery, but no-one was available to pay.
collect
adv
Etymology From Middle English collecten, a borrowing from Old French collecter, from Medieval Latin collectare (“to collect money”), from Latin collecta (“a collection of money, in Late Latin a meeting, assemblage, in Medieval Latin a tax, also an assembly for prayer, a prayer”), feminine of collectus, past participle of colligere, conligere (“to gather together, collect, consider, conclude, infer”), from com- (“together”) + legere (“to gather”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather, collect”).
Etymology From Middle English collecte, from Ecclesiastical Latin collēcta (“assembly; collect”), originally designating the gathering at the beginning of a liturgical celebration.
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ChristianityCapitalized, Sometimes The prayer said before the reading of the epistle lesson, especially one found in a prayerbook, as with the Book of Common Prayer.
He used the day's collect as the basis of his sermon.