different between gather vs layer

English

Alternative forms

• gether (obsolete or regional)

Etymology

From Middle English gaderen, from Old English gaderian (“to gather, assemble”), from Proto-West Germanic *gadur?n (“to bring together, unite, gather”), from Proto-Indo-European *g?ed?- (“to unite, assemble, keep”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??æð?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??æð?/
• Rhymes: -æð?(?)

Verb

gather (third-person singular simple present gathers, present participle gathering, simple past and past participle gathered)

1. To collect; normally separate things.
   1. Especially, to harvest food.

   2. To accumulate over time, to amass little by little.

   3. (intransitive) To congregate, or assemble.
      • ?, Alfred Tennyson, Tears

        Tears from the depth of some divine despair / Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes.

   4. (intransitive) To grow gradually larger by accretion.

      • Their snow-ball did not gather as it went.

2. To bring parts of a whole closer.
   1. (sewing) To add pleats or folds to a piece of cloth, normally to reduce its width.

   2. (knitting) To bring stitches closer together.

   3. (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.
   4. (nautical) To haul in; to take up.

3. To infer or conclude; to know from a different source.

4. (intransitive, medicine, of a boil or sore) To be filled with pus

5. (glassblowing) To collect molten glass on the end of a tool.
6. To gain; to win.

Synonyms

• (to bring together): aggroup, togetherize; see also Thesaurus:round up

  (—to accumulate over time): accrue, add up; see also Thesaurus:accumulate

  (—to congregate): assemble, begather; see also Thesaurus:assemble

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

gather (plural gathers)

1. A plait or fold in cloth, made by drawing a thread through it; a pucker.
2. The inclination forward of the axle journals to keep the wheels from working outward.
3. The soffit or under surface of the masonry required in gathering. See gather (transitive verb).
4. (glassblowing) A blob of molten glass collected on the end of a blowpipe.
5. A gathering.
   • 2007, John Barnes, The Sky So Big and Black (Tor Books, ?ISBN):

     "I'll tell you all about it at the Gather, win or lose."

   • 2014, Paul Lederer, Dark Angel Riding (Open Road Media, ?ISBN):

     What bothered him more, he thought as he started Washoe southward, was Spikes's animosity, the bearded man's sudden violent reaction to his arrival at the gather.

Derived terms

• gathering iron

Translations

Anagrams

• Gareth, rageth

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /l??/, (spelling pronunciation) /le?.?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?le?.?/
• Rhymes: -??(?), -e??(?)
• Homophone: lair (one pronunciation)

Etymology 1

Appears at first glance to be from Middle English leyer, leyare (“a layer of stones or bricks”), equivalent to lay +? -er. In which case, ultimately identical to the other word below that is also spelt layer.

However, this word layer (referring to a thickness of a material covering a surface) has long been argued to be from a respelling of an obsolete sense of the word lair that was once used by farmers, which had to do with soil. The connecting sense between the usual meaning of lair and the specialised farming meaning was: an area where cows typically rest, the ground being fertilised by their waste. Related to lie, ledger.

Noun

layer (plural layers)

1. A single thickness of some material covering a surface.

   Wrap the loaf in two layers of aluminum foil before putting it in the oven.

   After the first coat of paint dried, he applied another layer.

   1. An item of clothing worn under or over another.

      It's cold now but it will warm up this afternoon. Make sure you wear layers.

2. A (usually) horizontal deposit; a stratum.

   I find seven-layer cake a bit too rich.

3. One of the items in a hierarchy.

   mired in layers of deceit

   • 2001, C/C++ Users Journal (volume 19, page 38)

     Right above the database access layer sits a number cruncher that performs any calculations that a particular request may require, such as computing a standard deviation. In many cases, this layer just forwards raw numbers.

4. (computer graphics, by analogy to a stack of transparencies) one in a stack of (initially transparent) drawing surfaces that comprise an image; used to keep elements of an image separate so that they can be modified independently from one another.

Synonyms

• (single thickness): lay (obsolete)
• (stratum): stratum

Derived terms

• boundary layer
• orchestration layer
• ozone layer

Translations

Verb

layer (third-person singular simple present layers, present participle layering, simple past and past participle layered)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To cut or divide into layers.
2. (transitive, intransitive) To arrange in layers.

   Layer the ribbons on top of one another to make an attractive pattern.

Translations

Etymology 2

lay +? -er

Noun

layer (plural layers)

1. A person who lays anything, such as tiles or a wager.
   • 1890, The Argosy (volume 49, page 183)

     If fortune ever favoured any venturesome layer of bets, Tom Elliot was certainly the one that day.

2. A mature female bird, insect, etc. that is able to lay eggs.

   When dealing with an infestation of headlice, the first step is to eliminate the layers.

3. A hen kept to lay eggs.
4. A shoot of a plant, laid underground for growth.

Translations

Derived terms

• minelayer
• tracklayer

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• Arely, Arley, Early, Leary, Raley, Rayle, early, leary, re-lay, relay