Disband and gather are opposites. Disband is to break up an organized group so that it no longer exists, its members going their separate ways. Gather is to bring scattered things together into one place. Disband takes a group apart and scatters it; gather brings scattered things together.
One stands an organized group down; the other brings scattered things into one place. Disband, literally 'to un-band', winds up an organized group so its members scatter. Gather is the everyday word for drawing scattered things together — people, leaves, facts. A crowd gathers to hear the speech; the committee behind it later disbands. One breaks a body up and scatters it; the other collects the scattered into one place.
disband
To disband is to break up an organized group so that it no longer exists — a band, a team, an army, a committee — and for its members to disperse and go their separate ways. Built from dis- 'apart' and band in its old sense of 'a company bound together', it is usually deliberate and often formal: a leader disbands a unit, or a body votes to disband itself. It can be transitive (they disbanded the choir) or intransitive (the choir disbanded). Close to dissolve, but disband stays with people and organizations.
gather
To gather is to bring scattered things together into one place — leaves into a heap, papers off a desk, a crowd into a square. It is the plainest, most general member of its family: where you collect by careful selection and things accumulate almost on their own, you simply gather whatever is spread out and draw it in. From the Old English gaderian, 'to bring together', it serves the concrete (gather wood) and the abstract alike (gather evidence, gather your thoughts).
| disband | gather | |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | break up an organized group for good | bring scattered things into one place |
| Direction | a body into none, scattered | inward, into one place |
| The result | members apart, group gone | a collection in one place |
| Often with | bands, armies, committees, teams | leaves, people, facts, a crowd |
| Noun | disbandment | a gathering |
| Example | The unit was disbanded. | A crowd gathered. |
Ask whether an organized group is wound up or scattered things are collected. Disband stands a group down and scatters its members — a formation loosening, members walking off. Gather brings scattered things into one place — leaves raked into a heap. If an organized group is broken up, that is disband; if scattered things are brought together, that is gather.
disband
- iThe regiment was disbanded at the end of the war.
- iiThe committee agreed to disband once its report was published.
- iiiAfter the split, the band disbanded for good.
gather
- iGather the leaves into a pile before it rains.
- iiA crowd gathered outside the gates.
- iiiShe gathered the facts she needed for the report.
Disband ends an organized group and scatters its members; gather brings scattered things together into one place. They oppose in direction — a body scattering versus scattered things collected. Gather can form the very crowd that a group, once organized, might later disband.
A clean antonym pair. Gather is the everyday word for drawing things together — 'gather the data', 'a crowd gathered'; disband is for an organized group ending — 'the unit was disbanded'. Examiners reward the contrast of direction: collecting the scattered into one place versus winding a body up and scattering it. The nouns are a gathering and disbandment.