collect one's thoughts

• gather one's thoughts

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collect one's thoughts (third-person singular simple present collects one's thoughts, present participle collecting one's thoughts, simple past and past participle collected one's thoughts)

1. (idiomatic) To become mentally composed, especially after being distressed, surprised, or disoriented; to become calm or organized in one's emotional state or thinking, as in preparation for a conversation, speech, decision, etc.
   • 1820, Washington Irving, “The Early Experiences of Ralph Ringwood,”, in The Crayon Papers:

     I got up feverish and nervous. I walked out before breakfast, striving to collect my thoughts and tranquilize my feelings.

   • 1857, Charlotte Brontë, chapter 7, in The Professor:

     I took a moment to collect my thoughts, and likewise to frame in French the sentence by which I proposed to open business.

   • 1917, L. Frank Baum, chapter 7, in The Lost Princess of Oz:

     She fell sprawling upon a green meadow and was so dazed and bewildered by her bumpy journey across the Merry-Go-Round Mountains that she lay quite still for a time to collect her thoughts.

   • 2001 July 30, Dean E. Murphy, “Political Memo; Being Mike Bloomberg, Without a Script or a Doubt”, in New York Times, retrieved 11 Oct. 2008:

     "I'm a believer, umm," Mr. Bloomberg said before standing silently at the lectern for seven seconds as he collected his thoughts.

• collect one's wits / gather one's wits