Gathering

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. The act of collecting or bringing together.

2. That which is gathered, collected, or brought together; as:

3. A crowd; an assembly; a congregation.

4. A charitable contribution; a collection.

5. A tumor or boil suppurated or maturated; an abscess.

Part of speech: adjective (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.