Pick up or gather person(s) or thing(s); commonly used in reference to children and tickets.
“Ms. Knox, 24, from Seattle, was returned to prison to collect her possessions and left less than a few hours later.” (New York Times, October 3, 2011)
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OED=Oxford English Dictionary AmE=American English BrE=British EnglishBen Yagoda's Books
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What struck me as oddest about this quote was the phrase “less than a few.” I’m fairly certain I’ve never come across that before, but I googled it, and it does, in fact, get well over 100,000 ghits.
Very odd phrase.
Seriously, you don’t use “collect”? I am surprised. I thought it was just a word everyone knew.