collect one's thoughts
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Pronunciation edit
Audio (AU) (file)
Verb edit
collect one's thoughts (third-person singular simple present collects one's thoughts, present participle collecting one's thoughts, simple past and past participle collected one's thoughts)
- (idiomatic) To become mentally composed, especially after being distressed, surprised, or disoriented; to become calm or organized in one's emotional state or thinking, as in preparation for a conversation, speech, decision, etc.
- 1820, Washington Irving, “The Early Experiences of Ralph Ringwood,”, in The Crayon Papers:
- I got up feverish and nervous. I walked out before breakfast, striving to collect my thoughts and tranquilize my feelings.
- 1857, Charlotte Brontë, chapter 7, in The Professor:
- I took a moment to collect my thoughts, and likewise to frame in French the sentence by which I proposed to open business.
- 1917, L. Frank Baum, chapter 7, in The Lost Princess of Oz:
- She fell sprawling upon a green meadow and was so dazed and bewildered by her bumpy journey across the Merry-Go-Round Mountains that she lay quite still for a time to collect her thoughts.
- 2001 July 30, Dean E. Murphy, “Political Memo; Being Mike Bloomberg, Without a Script or a Doubt”, in New York Times, retrieved 11 Oct. 2008:
- "I'm a believer, umm," Mr. Bloomberg said before standing silently at the lectern for seven seconds as he collected his thoughts.
Synonyms edit
Translations edit
Translations
|