ppl. a. [f. COLLECT v.]
1. lit. Gathered together, assembled, accumulated.
1670. Milton, Hist. Eng., I. (1851), 6. Æneas a Trojan Prince … with his Son Ascanius, and a collected number that escap’d.
1735. Berkeley, Querist, § 193. The collected wisdom of ages.
1878. Morley, Diderot, I. 203. Diderot’s articles fill more than four of the large volumes of his collected works.
† b. Gathered by way of inference; inferred.
1627–77. Feltham, Resolves, I. xvii. 29. ’Tis easier to bear collected unkindness, than that which we meet in affronts.
2. fig. Having one’s thoughts, feelings, or mental faculties at command or in order: composed, self-possessed. The opposite of distracted.
1610. Shaks., Temp., I. ii. 13. Be collected, No more amazement.
1704. Swift, Batt. Bks. (1711), 239. Like an Orator collected in himself, and just prepar’d to burst out.
1865. M. Arnold, Ess. Crit., i. (1875), 29. The most collected spectator.
1885. Sir J. Hannen, in Law Rep. 10 P. Div. 90. A calm and collected and rational mind.
3. Having the physical faculties under control.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 363. When he stands collected in his Might, He roars, and promises a more successful Fight.
1879. Whyte-Melville, Riding Recoll., v. (ed. 7), 85. That well-broken hunter … landing in the same collected form. Ibid., v. 89. I could not have believed it possible to make a horse go so fast in so collected a form.
