congregate

present singular third person congregates · participle present congregating · participle past congregated · past congregated

1. transitiveTo collect into an assembly or assemblage; to bring into one place, or into a united body.

   Cold congregates all bodies.

   1825, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, Aids to Reflection in the Formation of a Manly Character on the Several Grounds of Prudence, Morality, and Religion: […], London: […] Thomas Davison, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC

   3 more examples

   Any multitude of Christian men congregated may be termed by the name of a church.

   [1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page)

   The great receptacle Of congregated waters he called Seas.

   1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   And here I would observe, that love of admiration seems scarcely to be properly appreciated; it is the only bond of society—we could not otherwise endure each other. It is the true source of the sublime, and, my conscience obliges me to add, of the ridiculous. Still, it is the strong necessity of admiring each other, and the being admired in our turn, that has built cities, congregated multitudes, and organised what we call our present state of civilisation.

   1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 68

   Synonyms: amass, assemble, compact, bring together, gather, mass, aggregate, bracket

2. intransitiveTo come together; to assemble; to meet.

   Even there where merchants most do congregate.

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]

   Synonyms: assemble, begather, forgather, assemble, begather, collect, congress, crowd

comparative more congregate · superlative most congregate

1. obsoleteCongregated.

   VVith all the Gods about him congregate:

   c. 1597–1598, Edmund Spenser, “Two Cantos of Mutabilitie: […]. Book VII, Canto VI.”, in The Faerie Queene, […], London: […] H[umphrey] L[ownes] for Mathew Lownes, published 1609, →OCLC, stanza 19, page 355

2. obsoleteChristianityCongregated (organized on a congregational basis).

   congregate churches

3. rareCollective; assembled; compact.

   With this reservation, therefore, we proceed to human philosophy or humanity, which hath two parts: the one considereth man segregate or distributively, the other congregate or in society; so as human philosophy is either simple and particular, or conjugate and civil.

   1605, Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, Book II, Chapter IX

1. in pluralobsoleteAssembled persons.

   That the congregates may frankelie shew their minds upon such matters as are to come before them.

   1587, William Harrison, Description of England, II. viii