gathering
 聚會,集會;積累,搜集


 gath·er·ing 名詞
 富集


 gathering
 集


 Gath·er v. t. [imp. & p. p. Gathered p. pr. & vb. n. Gathering.]
 1. To bring together; to collect, as a number of separate things, into one place, or into one aggregate body; to assemble; to muster; to congregate.
 And Belgium's capital had gathered them
 Her beauty and her chivalry.   --Byron.
    When he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together.   --Matt. ii. 4.
 2. To pick out and bring together from among what is of less value; to collect, as a harvest; to harvest; to cull; to pick off; to pluck.
    A rose just gathered from the stalk.   --Dryden.
    Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?   --Matt. vii. 16.
    Gather us from among the heathen.   --Ps. cvi. 47.
 3. To accumulate by collecting and saving little by little; to amass; to gain; to heap up.
    He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor.   --Prov. xxviii. 8.
    To pay the creditor . . . he must gather up money by degrees.   --Locke.
 4. To bring closely together the parts or particles of; to contract; to compress; to bring together in folds or plaits, as a garment; also, to draw together, as a piece of cloth by a thread; to pucker; to plait; as, to gather a ruffle.
 Gathering his flowing robe, he seemed to stand
 In act to speak, and graceful stretched his hand.   --Pope.
 5. To derive, or deduce, as an inference; to collect, as a conclusion, from circumstances that suggest, or arguments that prove; to infer; to conclude.
 Let me say no more!
 Gather the sequel by that went before.   --Shak.
 6. To gain; to win. [Obs.]
    He gathers ground upon her in the chase.   --Dryden.
 7. Arch. To bring together, or nearer together, in masonry, as where the width of a fireplace is rapidly diminished to the width of the flue, or the like.
 8. Naut. To haul in; to take up; as, to gather the slack of a rope.
 To be gathered to one's people or To be gathered to one's fathers to die. --Gen. xxv. 8.
 To gather breath, to recover normal breathing after being out of breath; to get one's breath; to rest. --Spenser.
 To gather one's self together, to collect and dispose one's powers for a great effort, as a beast crouches preparatory to a leap.
 To gather way Naut., to begin to move; to move with increasing speed.


 Gath·er·ing, n.
 1. The act of collecting or bringing together.
 2. That which is gathered, collected, or brought together; as: (a) A crowd; an assembly; a congregation. (b) A charitable contribution; a collection. (c) A tumor or boil suppurated or maturated; an abscess.


 Gath·er·ing, a. Assembling; collecting; used for gathering or concentrating.
 Gathering board Bookbinding, a table or board on which signatures are gathered or assembled, to form a book. --Knight.
 Gathering coal, a lighted coal left smothered in embers over night, about which kindling wood is gathered in the morning.
 Gathering hoop, a hoop used by coopers to draw together the ends of barrel staves, to allow the hoops to be slipped over them.
 Gathering peat. (a) A piece of peat used as a gathering coal, to preserve a fire. (b) In Scotland, a fiery peat which was sent round by the Borderers as an alarm signal, as the fiery cross was by the Highlanders.

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 gathering
      adj : accumulating and becoming more intense; "the deepening
            gloom"; "felt a deepening love"; "the gathering
            darkness"; "the thickening dusk" [syn: deepening(a),
            gathering(a), thickening(a)]
      n 1: a group of persons together in one place [syn: assemblage]
      2: the social act of assembling; "they demanded the right of
         assembly" [syn: assembly, assemblage] [ant: dismantling]
      3: the act of gathering something [syn: gather]
      4: sewing consisting of small folds or puckers made by pulling
         tight a thread in a line of stitching [syn: gather]