Verb

(prepar)

To make ready for a specific future purpose; to set up; to assemble.

* Bible, Psalms cvii. 36

that they may prepare a city for habitation

* Dryden

our souls, not yet prepared for upper light

To make ready for eating or drinking; to cook.

To make oneself ready; to get ready, make preparation.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=19 citation , passage=As soon as Julia returned with a constable, Timothy, who was on the point of exhaustion, prepared to give over to him gratefully. The newcomer turned out to be a powerful youngster, fully trained and eager to help, and he stripped off his tunic at once.}}

To produce or make by combining elements; to synthesize, compound.

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.