different between knit vs gather

English

Etymology

From Middle English knytten, from Old English cnyttan (“to fasten, tie, bind, knit; add, append”), from Proto-Germanic *knutjan?, *knuttijan? (“to make knots, knit”). Cognate with Old Norse knýta (whence Danish knytte, Norwegian Nynorsk knyta) and Northern German knütten. More at knot.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?t/
• Rhymes: -?t
• Homophone: nit

Verb

knit (third-person singular simple present knits, present participle knitting, simple past and past participle knit or knitted)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To turn thread or yarn into a piece of fabric by forming loops that are pulled through each other. This can be done by hand with needles or by machine.

   to knit a stocking

   The first generation knitted to order; the second still knits for its own use; the next leaves knitting to industrial manufacturers.

2. (figuratively, transitive) To join closely and firmly together.

   The fight for survival knitted the men closely together.

   • 1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 26,^[1]

     Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage

     Thy merit hath my duty strongly knit,

     To thee I send this written embassage,

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, 1 Samuel 18:1,^[2]

     And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

   • 1637, John Milton, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634, London: Humphrey Robinson, p. 6,^[3]

     Come, knit hands, and beate the ground

     In a light fantastick round.

   • 1672, Richard Wiseman, A Treatise of Wounds, London: Richard Royston,^[4]

     Nature cannot knit the bones while the parts are under a discharge.

   • 1850, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, Canto 39, p. 60,^[5]

     Her office there to rear, to teach,

     Becoming as is meet and fit

     A link among the days, to knit

     The generations each with each;

3. (intransitive) To become closely and firmly joined; become compacted.
4. (intransitive) To grow together.

   All those seedlings knitted into a kaleidoscopic border.

5. (transitive) To combine from various elements.

   The witness knitted together his testimony from contradictory pieces of hearsay.

6. (intransitive) Of bones: to heal following a fracture.

7. (transitive) To form into a knot, or into knots; to tie together, as cord; to fasten by tying.
   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, King John, Act IV, Scene 1,^[6]

     When your head did but ache,

     I knit my handkercher about your brows,

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Book of Acts 10:11,^[7]

     [He] saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending upon him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners […]

8. (transitive) To draw together; to contract into wrinkles.
   • c. 1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act III, Scene 1,^[8]

     He knits his brow and shows an angry eye,

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• tricot
• weave

Noun

knit (plural knits)

1. A knitted garment.
2. A session of knitting.

References

• Knitting on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• tink

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