recollect

verb rec·ol·lect \ ˌre-kə-ˈlekt \

Definition of recollect

transitive verb

1 :to bring back to the level of conscious awareness :remember

trying to recollect the name

2 :to remind (oneself) of something temporarily forgotten

intransitive verb

:to call something to mind

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Examples of recollect in a Sentence

I've been trying to recollect what happened.
I don't recollect telling him anything, but maybe I did.
She couldn't recollect who had mentioned his name in the first place.
From what I recollect, they said four of them were coming.

Recent Examples of recollect from the Web

FC Cincinnati tried to recollect the pieces, but was left scrambling and trying not to turn the lead into a deficit, which would eventually come.

— charlie hatch, Cincinnati.com, "2 goals in 3 minutes shatter FC Cincy's semifinal," 16 Aug. 2017
From time to time, so Vera recollected, said Austerlitz, Maximilian would tell the tale of how once . . .

— james wood, The New Yorker, "W. G. Sebald, Humorist," 31 May 2017
Years later, internees would recollect the cold, the heat, the wind, the dust—and the isolation.

— Smithsonian, "The Injustice of Japanese-American Internment Camps Resonates Strongly to This Day," 2 May 2017
Across the road is the Power Hall which houses engines of all shapes and sizes, recollecting Manchester’s industrial history.

— sophie brown, WIRED, "The Manchester Museum of Science & Industry," 13 June 2011

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'recollect.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of recollect

Medieval Latin recollectus, past participle of recolligere, from Latin, to gather again

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1559

See Words from the same year

recollect Synonyms

Synonyms

flash back (to), hark back (to), harken back (to), hearken back (to), mind [chiefly dialect], recall, remember, reminisce (about), reproduce, think (of)

Antonyms

disremember, forget, unlearn

Related Words

recapture, recur; educe, elicit, evoke, extract, raise, remind; relive; represent

Near Antonyms

misremember; disregard, ignore, neglect, overlook; lose, miss; blank (out)

Synonym Discussion of recollect

remember, recollect, recall, remind, reminisce mean to bring an image or idea from the past into the mind. remember implies a keeping in memory that may be effortless or unwilled.