different between collect vs flock

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English collecten, a borrowing from Old French collecter, from Medieval Latin collectare (“to collect money”), from Latin collecta (“a collection of money, in Late Latin a meeting, assemblage, in Medieval Latin a tax, also an assembly for prayer, a prayer”), feminine of collectus, past participle of colligere, conligere (“to gather together, collect, consider, conclude, infer”), from com- (“together”) + legere (“to gather”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??l?kt/
• Rhymes: -?kt

Verb

collect (third-person singular simple present collects, present participle collecting, simple past and past participle collected)

1. (transitive) To gather together; amass.

2. (transitive) To get; particularly, get from someone.

3. (transitive) To accumulate (a number of similar or related objects), particularly for a hobby or recreation.
4. (transitive, now rare) To form a conclusion; to deduce, infer. (Compare gather, get.)
   • 1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book II, Chapter XVII, section 20

     […] which consequence, I conceive, is very ill collected.

   • 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial 2007, page 292-3:

     the riot is so great that it is very difficult to collect what is being said.

5. (intransitive, often with on or against) To collect payments.

6. (intransitive) To come together in a group or mass.

7. (transitive) To infer; to conclude.

   • Whence some collect that the former word imports a plurality of persons.

8. (transitive, of a vehicle or driver) To collide with or crash into (another vehicle or obstacle).

   The truck veered across the central reservation and collected a car that was travelling in the opposite direction.

Synonyms

• (to gather together): aggregate, gather up; see also Thesaurus:round up
• (to get from someone): receive, secure; see also Thesaurus:receive
• (to accumulate items for a hobby): amound, gather; see also Thesaurus:accumulate
• (to infer, conclude, form a conclusion): assume, construe
• (to collect payments):
• (to come together in a group or mass): group, mass, merge; see also Thesaurus:assemble or Thesaurus:coalesce
• (to collide with): bump into, plough into, run into

Hyponyms

• garbage collect

Translations

Adjective

collect (not comparable)

1. To be paid for by the recipient, as a telephone call or a shipment.

Translations

Adverb

collect (not comparable)

1. With payment due from the recipient.

Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Latin ?r?ti? ad collectam (“prayer towards the congregation”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k?l?kt/, /?k?l?kt/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?l?kt/

Noun

collect (plural collects) (sometimes capitalized)

1. (Christianity) The prayer said before the reading of the epistle lesson, especially one found in a prayerbook, as with the Book of Common Prayer.

Translations

Further reading

• collect in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• collect in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• collect at OneLook Dictionary Search

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /fl?k/
• (US) IPA^(key): /fl?k/
• Rhymes: -?k

Etymology 1

From Middle English flock (“flock”), from Old English flocc (“flock, company, troop”), from Proto-Germanic *flukkaz, *flakka- (“crowd, troop”). Cognate with Middle Low German vlocke (“crowd, flock”), Old Norse flokkr (“crowd, troop, band, flock”). Perhaps related to Old English folc (“crowd, troop, band”). More at folk.

Noun

flock (plural flocks)

1. A number of birds together in a group, such as those gathered together for the purpose of migration.
2. A large number of animals associated together in a group; commonly used of various farmed animals, such as sheep and goats, but applied to a wide variety of animals.
3. Those served by a particular pastor or shepherd.
4. A large number of people.

   Synonym: congregation

5. (Christianity) A religious congregation.

   Synonym: congregation

Synonyms

(large number of people):

• bunch, gaggle, horde, host, legion, litter, nest, rabble, swarm, throng, wake

Translations

Verb

flock (third-person singular simple present flocks, present participle flocking, simple past and past participle flocked)

1. (intransitive) To congregate in or head towards a place in large numbers.

   People flocked to the cinema to see the new film.

   • What place the gods for our repose assigned.
     Friends daily flock; and scarce the kindly spring
     Began to clothe the ground

2. (transitive, obsolete) To flock to; to crowd.
   • 1609, Taylor

     Good fellows, trooping, flocked me so.

3. To treat a pool with chemicals to remove suspended particles.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English flok (“tuft of wool”), from Old French floc (“tuft of wool”), from Late Latin floccus (“tuft of wool”), probably from Frankish *flokko (“down, wool, flock”), from Proto-Germanic *flukk?n-, *flukkan-, *fluks?n- (“down, flock”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“hair, fibres, tuft”). Cognate with Old High German flocko (“down”), Middle Dutch vlocke (“flock”), Norwegian dialectal flugsa (“snowflake”). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian flokë (“hair”).

Noun

flock (countable and uncountable, plural flocks)

1. Coarse tufts of wool or cotton used in bedding.
2. A lock of wool or hair.
3. Very fine sifted woollen refuse, especially that from shearing the nap of cloths, formerly used as a coating for wallpaper to give it a velvety or clothlike appearance; also, the dust of vegetable fibre used for a similar purpose.

   • There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.

Translations

Verb

flock (third-person singular simple present flocks, present participle flocking, simple past and past participle flocked)

1. (transitive) To coat a surface with dense fibers or particles; especially, to create a dense arrangement of fibers with a desired nap.

Translations

Derived terms

• flocked

See also

• Appendix:English collective nouns

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Swedish flokker, flukker, from Old Norse flokkr, from Proto-Germanic *flukkaz. Cognate with Faroese flokkur, Icelandic flokkur, Norwegian flokk, and Danish flok.

Pronunciation

Noun

flock c

1. flock; a group of people or animals
2. murder of crows

Declension

Related terms

• flockas