collation

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Bringing together.

   “November 8, 1717, The Bishop of Rochester, letter to Alexander Pope I return you your Milton, which, upon collation, I find to be revised, and augmented, in several places”

   “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.”

2. (countable, uncountable)Bringing together.
3. (countable, uncountable)Bringing together.

   “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.”

4. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Discussion, light meal.
5. (countable, in-plural, uncountable)Discussion, light meal.

   “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 […]”

6. (countable, uncountable)Discussion, light meal.

   “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.”

7. (countable, uncountable)Discussion, light meal.
8. (countable, uncountable)Discussion, light meal.

   “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.”

   “There were some unofficial local rejoicings, but none of the elaborate junketings which marked the birth of earlier railways. The company had little cash to spend on sumptuous cold collations, and the like.”

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

9. (countable, uncountable)The presentation of a clergyman to a benefice by a bishop, who has it in his own gift.
10. (countable, uncountable)The blending together of property so as to achieve equal division, mainly in the case of inheritance.
11. (Scotland, countable, uncountable)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.
12. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)The act of conferring or bestowing.

    “Not by the collation of the king […] but by the people.”

13. (countable, uncountable)Presentation to a benefice.
14. (countable, uncountable)The specification of how character data should be treated stored and sorted.
15. (countable, uncountable)The process of establishing a corrected text of a work by comparing differing manuscripts or editions of it; also used to describe the work resulting from such a process.

verb

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

   “I […] collationed in Spring Garden.”