Definition of "collation"

Bringing together.

1. The act of bringing things together and comparing them; comparison.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • I return you your Milton, which, upon collation, I find to be revised, and augmented, in several places

     November 8, 1717, The Bishop of Rochester, letter to Alexander Pope

   • The collation of philosophical opinions, the study of historical facts, the acquirement of languages, were at once my recreation, and the serious aim of my life.

     1826, [Mary Shelley], The Last Man. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, […]

2. The act of collating pages or sheets of a book, or from printing etc.  examples

3. A collection, a gathering.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • It's fantastic, as is so much of Forgiveness Rock Record, a collation of so many talents that it's practically bursting at the seams.

     2010 April 29, Will Dean, The Guardian

Discussion, light meal.

1. (obsolete) A conference or consultation.

2. (in the plural) The Collationes Patrum in Scetica Eremo Commorantium by John Cassian, an important ecclesiastical work. (Now usually with capital initial.)  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • A certain abbot, named Moses, thus testifieth of himself in the Collations of Cassianus, that he so afflicted himself with much fasting and watching, that sometimes, for two or three days together, not only he felt no appetite to eat, but also had no remembrance of any meat at all […]

     1563 March 30, John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], book I, page

3. A reading held from the work mentioned above, as a regular service in Benedictine monasteries.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • When the hymn was over the Sacrist was to strike the table for collation, and the Deacon to enter with the Gospel, preceded by three converts, carrying the candlestick and censer.

     1843, TD Fosbroke, British Monachism, page 52

4. The light meal taken by monks after the reading service mentioned above.  examples

5. Any light meal or snack.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Her first glance was one of triumph—her next was one of mingled admiration and gratitude for Louis; and, accepting his offered hand, they led the way to the banquet prepared in the Palais Orion,—a favourite garden-house, where they often had collations when the party was but small, which was the case to-day.

     1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), page 138

   • Yes, absolutely; supper, at least in English tradition, was a cold collation, left out by cook before retiring.

     2008, Tim Hayward, The Guardian, 13 May 08

(ecclesiastical) The presentation of a clergyman to a benefice by a bishop, who has it in his own gift.  examples

(civil law, inheritance) The blending together of property so as to achieve equal division, mainly in the case of inheritance.  examples

(civil law, inheritance, Scotland) An heir's right to combine the whole heritable and movable estates of the deceased into one mass, sharing it equally with others who are of the same degree of kindred.  examples

(obsolete) The act of conferring or bestowing.  quotations

(ecclesiastical) Presentation to a benefice.  examples

(databases) The specification of how character data should be treated stored and sorted.  examples

(obsolete) To partake of a collation, or light meal.  quotations