Meanings
present singular third person forgathers · participle present forgathering · participle past forgathered · past forgathered · alternative foregather
- intransitiveTo assemble or gather together in one place, to gather up; to congregate.
They found themselves obliged to forgather in Perugia, where few of them wished to be – least of all the French cardinals who would have preferred not to be in Italy at all.
2007, Edwin Mullins, The Popes of Avignon, Blue Bridge, published 2008, page 83 more examples
Dean’s California—wild, sweaty, important, the land of lonely and exiled and eccentric lovers come to forgather like birds, and the land where everybody somehow looked like broken-down, handsome, decadent movie actors.
1957 September 5, Jack Kerouac, chapter 9, in On the Road, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →OCLC, part 2“And she caught you?” “Not once, but twice.” [...] “Half-way under the dressing-table, were you?” “The second time. When we first forgathered, I was sitting on the floor with a chair round my neck.”
1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC“I can tell you where to find them,’ she said, ‘with a fair degree of certainty; they foregather almost every evening about this time at a rather disreputable old pub.’
1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 725
Synonyms & antonyms
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Scotsforgather
- Englishforgather
From Scots forgather, foregather (“to gather up, assemble”), equivalent to for- + gather. Cognate with Dutch vergaderen (“to assemble”), German vergattern (“to assemble; to assign duty”).
More words from Scots
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian събирам се, срещам се
- събирам се (săbiram se)To assemble or gather together in one place
- срещам се (sreštam se)To assemble or gather together in one place
- общувам (obštuvam)To assemble or gather together in one place
French se réunir
- se réunirTo assemble or gather together in one place
Polish gromadzić się, zgromadzić się
- gromadzić sięTo assemble or gather together in one place
- zgromadzić sięTo assemble or gather together in one place
Cite this entry
forgather. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forgather
“forgather.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forgather. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “forgather,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forgather.
Source: forgather on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.