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Purse vs Gather - What's the difference?

purse | gather | Synonyms |

Purse is a synonym of gather.


As nouns the difference between purse and gather

is that purse is a small bag for carrying money while gather is a plait or fold in cloth, made by drawing a thread through it; a pucker.

As verbs the difference between purse and gather

is that purse is to press (one's lips) in and together so that they protrude while gather is to collect; normally separate things.

purse

English

(wikipedia purse)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A small bag for carrying money.
  • * 1550 Mierdman, Steuen, The market or fayre of usurers
    • And then mu?t many a man occupie as farre as his pur?e would reache, and ?tretche out his legges accordynge to the length of his couerlet.
  • (US) A handbag (small bag usually used by women for carrying various small personal items)
  • A quantity of money given for a particular purpose.
  • * , Episode 12, The Cyclops
    • It was a historic and a hefty battle when Myler and Percy were scheduled to don the gloves for the purse of fifty sovereigns.
  • (historical) A specific sum of money in certain countries: formerly 500 piastres in Turkey or 50 tomans in Persia.

    • Synonyms

    * (small bag for carrying money) pocketbook; coin purse, change purse * (especially US) * (small bag used by women) handbag (especially UK) * (quantity of money) bursary, grant

    Derived terms

    * common purse * make a silk purse of a sow's ear * murse

    Related terms

    * bursa, bursar, bursary * reimburse

    See also

    * wallet

    Verb

    (purs)
  • To press (one's lips) in and together so that they protrude.
  • * 1979 , (Monty Python), (Always Look on the Bright Side of Life)
    • When you're feeling in the dumps
    Don't be silly chumps
    Just purse your lips and whistle – that's the thing.
  • To draw up or contract into folds or wrinkles; to pucker; to knit.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Thou didst contract and purse thy brow.
  • To put into a purse.
  • * Shakespeare
    • I will go and purse the ducats straight.
  • (intransitive, obsolete, rare) To steal purses; to rob.
  • * Beaumont and Fletcher
    • I'll purse : I'll bet at bowling alleys.

    Synonyms

    * pucker

    Anagrams

    * ----

    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