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Webster 1913 Edition


Collector

Col-lect′or

,
Noun.
[LL.
collector
one who collects: cf. F.
collecteur
.]
1.
One who collects things which are separate; esp., one who makes a business or practice of collecting works of art, objects in natural history, etc.;
as, a
collector
of coins
.
I digress into Soho to explore a bookstall. Methinks I have been thirty years a
collector
.
Lamb.
2.
A compiler of books; one who collects scattered passages and puts them together in one book.
Volumes without the
collector’s
own reflections.
Addison.
3.
(Com.)
An officer appointed and commissioned to collect and receive customs, duties, taxes, or toll.
A great part of this is now embezzled . . . by
collectors
, and other officers.
Sir W. Temple.
4.
One authorized to collect debts.
5.
A bachelor of arts in Oxford, formerly appointed to superintend some scholastic proceedings in Lent.
Todd.

Webster 1828 Edition


Collector

COLLECTOR

, n.
1.
One who collects or gathers things which are scattered or separate.
2.
A compiler; one who gathers and puts together parts of books, or scattered pieces, in one book.
3.
In botany, one who gathers plants, without studying botany as a science.
4.
An officer appointed and commissioned to collect and receive customs, duties, taxes or toll.
5.
A bachelor of arts in Oxford, who is appointed to superintend some scholastic proceedings in Lent.

Definition 2024


collector

collector

English

Alternative forms

Noun

collector (plural collectors)

  1. A person who or thing that collects, or which creates or manages a collection.
    He is an avid collector of nineteenth-century postage stamps.
    That old piano is just a big dust collector.
    • 2012 April 26, Tasha Robinson, “Film: Reviews: The Pirates! Band Of Misfits :”, in The Onion AV Club:
      Hungry for fame and the approval of rare-animal collector Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton), Darwin deceives the Captain and his crew into believing they can get enough booty to win the pirate competition by entering Polly in a science fair. So the pirates journey to London in cheerful, blinkered defiance of the Queen, a hotheaded schemer whose royal crest reads simply “I hate pirates.”
  2. A person who is employed to collect payments.
    She works for the government as a tax collector.
    • 1668 July 3rd, James Dalrymple, “Thomas Rue contra Andrew Houſtoun” in The Deciſions of the Lords of Council & Seſſion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 547
      Andrew Houſtoun and Adam Muſhet, being Tackſmen of the Excize, did Imploy Thomas Rue to be their Collector, and gave him a Sallary of 30. pound Sterling for a year.
  3. (electronics) The amplified terminal on a bipolar junction transistor.
  4. A compiler of books; one who collects scattered passages and puts them together in one book.
    • Addison
      Volumes without the collector's own reflections.
  5. (historical) One holding a Bachelor of Arts in Oxford, formerly appointed to superintend some scholastic proceedings in Lent.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Todd to this entry?)

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