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Huddle vs Gather - What's the difference?

huddle | gather |

In intransitive terms the difference between huddle and gather

is that huddle is to curl one's legs up to the chest and keep one's arms close to the torso; to crouch; to assume a position similar to that of an embryo in the womb while gather is to grow gradually larger by accretion.

huddle

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • a dense and disorderly crowd
  • (American football) a brief meeting of all the players from one team that are on the field with the purpose of planning the following play.
  • Verb

    (huddl)
  • To crowd together as when distressed or in fear.
  • * 1912 : (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (Tarzan of the Apes), Chapter 4
  • During all these operations the apes who had entered sat huddled near the door watching their chief, while those outside strained and crowded to catch a glimpse of what transpired within.
  • To curl one's legs up to the chest and keep one's arms close to the torso; to crouch; to assume a position similar to that of an embryo in the womb.
  • To get together and discuss.
  • * 2012 November 2, Ken Belson, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/03/sports/new-york-city-marathon-will-not-be-held-sunday.html?hp&_r=0]," New York Times (retrieved 2 November 2012):
  • George Hirsch, chairman of the board of Road Runners, said officials huddled all day Friday, hoping to devise an alternate race. They considered replacing the marathon with a race that would comprise the final 10 miles of marathon, starting at the base of the Queensboro 59th Street Bridge on the Manhattan side. But that was not deemed plausible, Mr. Hirsch said.
  • (American football) To form a huddle.
  • To crowd (things) together; to mingle confusedly; to assemble without order or system.
  • * (John Locke)
  • Our adversary, huddling several suppositions together,makes a medley and confusion.
  • To do, make, or put, in haste or roughly; hence, to do imperfectly; usually with a following preposition or adverb (huddle on'', ''huddle up'', ''huddle together ).
  • * J. H. Newman
  • Huddle up a peace.
  • * (John Dryden)
  • Let him forecast his work with timely care, / Which else is huddled when the skies are fair.
  • * (Jonathan Swift)
  • Now, in all haste, they huddle on / Their hoods, their cloaks, and get them gone.

    gather

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To collect; normally separate things.
  • I've been gathering ideas from the people I work with.
    She bent down to gather the reluctant cat from beneath the chair.
  • # Especially, to harvest food.
  • We went to gather some blackberries from the nearby lane.
  • # To accumulate over time, to amass little by little.
  • Over the years he'd gathered a considerable collection of mugs.
  • # To congregate, or assemble.
  • People gathered round as he began to tell his story.
  • #* Tennyson
  • Tears from the depth of some divine despair / Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes.
  • # To grow gradually larger by accretion.
  • #* Francis Bacon
  • Their snowball did not gather as it went.
  • To bring parts of a whole closer.
  • She gathered the shawl about her as she stepped into the cold.
  • # (sewing) To add pleats or folds to a piece of cloth, normally to reduce its width.
  • A gown should be gathered around the top so that it will remain shaped.
  • # (knitting) To bring stitches closer together.
  • Be careful not to stretch or gather your knitting.
  • If you want to emphasise the shape, it is possible to gather the waistline.
  • # (architecture) To bring together, or nearer together, in masonry, as for example where the width of a fireplace is rapidly diminished to the width of the flue.
  • # (nautical) To haul in; to take up.
  • to gather the slack of a rope
  • To infer or conclude; to know from a different source.
  • From his silence, I gathered that things had not gone well.
    I gather from Aunty May that you had a good day at the match.
  • (intransitive, medicine, of a boil or sore) To be filled with pus
  • Salt water can help boils to gather and then burst.
  • (glassblowing) To collect molten glass on the end of a tool.
  • To gain; to win.
  • * Dryden
  • He gathers ground upon her in the chase.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A plait or fold in cloth, made by drawing a thread through it; a pucker.
  • The inclination forward of the axle journals to keep the wheels from working outward.
  • The soffit or under surface of the masonry required in gathering. See gather (transitive verb).
  • (glassblowing) A blob of molten glass collected on the end of a blowpipe.
  • Derived terms

    * gathering iron