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Gather vs Rather - What's the difference?

gather | rather |

As verbs the difference between gather and rather

is that gather is to collect; normally separate things while rather is to prefer; to prefer to.

As a noun gather

is a plait or fold in cloth, made by drawing a thread through it; a pucker.

As an adverb rather is

more quickly; sooner, earlier.

As an adjective rather is

prior; earlier; former.

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

    Anagrams

    * * English ergative verbs

    rather

    English

    Adverb

    (-)
  • (obsolete) More quickly; sooner, earlier.
  • Used to specify a choice or preference; preferably. (Now usually followed by than )
  • *
    • Firstly, I continue to base most species treatments on personally collected material, rather than on herbarium plants.
  • (conjunctive) Used to introduce a contradiction; on the contrary.
  • (conjunctive) Introducing a qualification or clarification; more precisely. (Now usually preceded by or .)
  • * 1897 , (Henry James), (What Maisie Knew) :
    • What the pupil already knew was indeed rather taken for granted than expressed, but it performed the useful function of transcending all textbooks and supplanting all studies.
  • * 1898, J. A. Hamilton, ", Volume LIV: Stanhope–Stovin , The MacMillan Company, page 60,
    • His ‘Iliad’ is spirited and polished, and, though often rather a paraphrase than a translation, is always more truly poetic than most of the best translations.
  • * , chapter=12
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill.
  • (degree) Somewhat, fairly.

    • Usage notes

    * (somewhat) This is a non-descriptive qualifier'', similar to quite and fairly and somewhat. It is used where a plain adjective needs to be modified, but cannot be qualified. When spoken, the meaning can vary with the tone of voice and stress. "''He was rather big''" can mean anything from "not small" to "huge" (meiosis with the stress on ''rather ).

    Synonyms

    * liever, liefer, as lief * (to a certain extent) somewhat, fairly, quite

    Antonyms

    * (somewhat) utterly

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (nonstandard, or, dialectal) To prefer; to prefer to.
  • * 1984 , Bruce Brooks, The Moves Make the Man :
    • Until just before the pie was popped into the heat. A few of them suddenly realized who put that gorgeous hunk of crackers together, and gaped. We grinned back, but very cool. The ones who knew said nothing, rathering to die than let on they had been hustled by two negative dudes.
  • * 2002 , Sarah Waters, Fingersmith :
    • It was a plain brown dress, more or less the colour of my hair; and the walls of our kitchen being also brown, when I came downstairs again I could hardly be seen. I should have rathered a blue gown, or a violet one
  • * 2002 , Elizabeth Bowen, The Heat of the Day :
    • So you must excuse my saying anything I did: all it was, that up to the very last I had understood us all to be friendly — apart, that is, from his rathering me not there. How was I to know he would flash out so wicked?
  • * 2007 , Mikel Schaefer, Lost in Katrina , page 323:
    • "That was a killer," said Chris. "I'd rathered' die in St. Bernard than spent one minute over there. I would have ' rathered the storm, shaking with the wind and rain hitting in the boat for an eternity than spending any time there.

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (obsolete) Prior; earlier; former.
  • * Sir J. Mandeville
    • Now no man dwelleth at the rather town.

    Statistics

    * English conjunctive adverbs English degree adverbs