congregate

verb

1. (transitive)To collect into an assembly or assemblage; to bring into one place, or into a united body.

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

   “The great receptacle Of congregated waters he called Seas.”

   “Cold congregates all bodies.”

   “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.”

2. (intransitive)To come together; to assemble; to meet.

   “Even there where merchants most do congregate.”

adj

1. (obsolete)Congregated.

   “VVith all the Gods about him congregate:”

2. (obsolete)Congregated (organized on a congregational basis).

   “congregate churches”

3. (rare)Collective; 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.”

noun

1. (in-plural, obsolete)Assembled persons.

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