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to recollect

to recollect

20 3.7
To remember something from the past
  • verb
  • /ˌrɛkəˈlɛkt/
translation icon : recordar
  • I recollect you saying something about staying off horses.
  • recollected in tranquility
  • recollecting emotions

Is it happiness as it's recollected over time?

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Examples

  • Indeed, one eyewitness, recollecting the event many years later, had forgotten about the storm associated with the wave.

    Academic text (2009)
  • - You recollect seeing us there?

  • Perhaps what he means is that it's impossible to recollect the length of time that a dream takes to dream.

  • The actress needs time to recollect her thoughts.

  • We must 'recollect' ourselves, recollect the inner drama, the narrative of ourselves.

    Academic text (1997)
  • If you could recollect, what is your greatest or fondest journey?

  • I just don't recollect those times when I got really stressed or nervous.

  • [Nana] I recollect how we lived in the time before freedom come, in the old days.

  • Don't you recollect, John?

  • I often recollect my childhood summers spent at my grandparents' farm.

Synonyms

to remember
vsto recollect
1.0

To think about something from the past

is used more for deliberate or formal acts of remembering
to think
vsto recollect
1.0

To remember something from before

leans more toward a deliberate act of calling a memory to mind
to recall
vsto recollect
2.4

Remember something from the past

is often used with a slightly more formal or deliberate tone
to look back
vsto recollect
323 2.6

Think about the past, especially a time you remember

is narrower, referring more to single memories than general reflection
to think back
vsto recollect
92 1.9

Remember things that happened in the past

implies a more formal or effortful act of bringing memory back
to retrieve
vsto recollect
44 4.1

To bring a memory or fact back into your mind

focuses more on everyday remembering rather than the retrieval process
to retrace
vsto recollect
12 4.4

To think back over the events or steps that led to something

is simpler, focusing on recalling rather than reconstructing details
to call up
vsto recollect
11 3.2

To make a memory or image appear in your mind

describes the same remembering but more as an internal act
to call back
vsto recollect
4 2.3

Remember something from the past

is slightly more formal or reflective when used in speech
to cast one's mind back
vsto recollect
2 6.3

Think about something that happened in the past to remember it

is similar but is used more generally, not only deliberate acts

Antonyms

1.0

Not remember something you should remember

How Well

to recall
2.4
to recollect
20 3.7
to forget
1.0

Surface Forms

recollect infinitive
recollected past participle
recollecting present participle
recollects third person singular

Morphology

recollect = collect (opaque) = re + collect

Although the form suggests 'collect again', the sense 'remember' is not a standard, learner-accessible result of adding 're-' to modern English 'collect'.

Etymology

The word recollect comes from Latin parts re- meaning 'again' and collect meaning 'gather'. It is the same root as collect, so to recollect is to 'gather' your thoughts again, in other words to remember something.