Also 6 -at. [f. ppl. stem of L. congregā-re: see prec.]
1. trans. To collect or gather (things) together into a mass or crowd.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg. (MS. B.), 4. Of enposteme of the hed & watire congregated in children hedys.
1547. Boorde, Introd. Knowl., xxxii. 205. Al the appostels bodies or bones to be congregated and brought together into one place.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, I. I. vii. These waters were afterwards congregated and called the sea.
1820. Shelley, Summer & Winter. The north wind congregates in crowds The floating mountains of the silver clouds.
1877. W. Thomson, Voy. Challenger, II. ii. 66. The spines are specially congregated on the central … portion of the disc.
2. To assemble (people), esp. to a meeting.
1513. Bradshaw, St. Werburge, II. 1437. The constable congregate in all goodly hast A myghty stronge host in theyr best arraye.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 8/1. Congregating the cleargie when need is of anie Councell or election.
1697. Evelyn, Numism, viii. 280. Bells … to Congregate the People.
a. 1763. Shenstone, Progr. Taste, I. 32. Alas! that wisdom ever shuns To congregate her scatter’d sons.
1771. Mrs. Harris, in Priv. Lett. 1st Ld. Malmesbury, I. 223. They were congregated by handbills.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 115. The house of … Callias, in which are congregated the noblest and wisest of the Athenians.
† b. pass. To be gathered or collected from.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Luke, v. 66. The church is congregated of two peoples, the Jews, and the Gentiles.
3. refl. and intr. To flock or assemble together; to meet in a large body.
refl. 1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1321/2. He as principall, and others as accessaries … congregated themselues, and … prouoked the people in maner of a rebellion.
intr. 1538. J. Lambert, in Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 1021/1. Then coulde all the other there congregate.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., I. iii. 50. Euen there where Merchants most doe congregate.
1659. Gauden, Slight Healers (1660), 105. Members of the Church with which they actually congregate and communicate.
1797. Bewick, Brit. Birds (1847), I. 300. Swallows … after they begin to congregate.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 549. The place where the British exiles had congregated.
1875. Lyell, Princ. Geol., II. III. xlvi. 542. Herds of herbivorous animals congregate together.
† b. To meet, mingle with. Obs.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 328. The Spirits of Bodies, which ever are unquiet to Get forth, and Congregate with the Air.
Hence Congregating vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1649. Roberts, Clavis Bibl., 364. The Congregating of men.
1775. Harris, Philos. Arrangem. (1841), 291. We can trace the same congregating quality in the bee, in the beaver.
1805. Wordsw., Prelude, III. (1850), 71. The congregating temper that pervades Our unripe years.
