- remember
- remember, recollect, recall, remind, reminisce, bethink, mind all carry as their basic meaning to put an image or idea from the past into the mind.Remember usually implies a putting oneself in mind of something. The term carries so strong an implication of keeping in one's memory that it often implies no conscious effort or willing{
he remembers every detail of that occurrence as though it happened yesterday
}{the average reader of the newspaper or short story reads to forget, not to remember— Eliot
}{years—so many of them that no one remembered the exact number— Roark Bradford
}Recollect implies a gathering of what has been scattered; it is distinguished from remember in presupposing a letting go from rather than a retaining in one's memory and therefore implies a bringing back, sometimes with effort, to one's own mind what has not been in it for an appreciable period of time{she tried to recollect some instance of goodness, some distinguished trait of integrity or benevolence, that might rescue him from the attacks of Mr. Darcy— Austen
}{beasts and babies remember, that is, recognize: man alone recollects— Coleridge
}{certain phrases . . . which I have often found myself recollecting from a distant past— Lucasy}}
}When used reflexively, recollect usually implies a remembrance of something (as one's manners or intention) one has forgotten (as from eagerness, excitement, anger, or haste){Catherine, recollecting herself, grew ashamed of her eagerness— Austen
}{he pointed a foot; recollected himself; took it back— Sackville-West
}Recall often comes close to recollect in implying volition or an effort to bring back what has been forgotten, but it differs from recollect in suggesting a summons rather than a process of thought; often, also, it connotes a telling of what is brought back{let me recall a case within my own recent experience— Mencken
}{I will permit my memory to recall the vision of you, by all my dreams attended— Millay
}But recall may imply, as recollect does not, an agent or an agency other than oneself, and in such use suggests the awakening or evocation of a memory{forty years later Mr. Wilson recalled this cir-cumstance to my memory— Repplier
}{that tree always awakened pleasant memories, recalling a garden in the south of France where he used to visit young cousins— Cather
}Remind implies the evocation of something forgotten, or not at the time in one's mind, by some compelling power or agent. Often also it strongly implies a jogging of one's memory. Usually the agent or agency is someone or something external that causes one to remember{he reminded me of my promise
}{this incident reminded him of another and similar one
}{he reminded himself that he had made an appointment for eight o'clock
}{he found it necessary to keep on reminding himself that the time was short and the work must be finished according to schedule
}Reminisce can imply the process of recollecting or of recalling something{how do people remember anything? How do they reminisce?—Lang
}but often it suggests a nostalgic dredging up and retelling of events and circumstances of one's past life{well, anyhow, we old fellows can reminisce— Garland
}{he cut me short to reminisce of his schoolmates— Hervey Allen
}Bethink, a commonly reflexive verb little used today, can distinctively imply recollection or recalling after reflection or a reminding oneself by thinking back{I have bethought me of another fault— Shak.
}{to bethink themselves how little they may owe to their own merit— Helps
}Mind (see also TEND) in the sense of remember is sometimes chosen to convey a dialectal feeling of simplicity or quaintness{I mind him coming down the street— Tennyson
}{the lads you leave will mind you till Ludlow tower shall fall— Housman
}{I can mind her well as a nursing mother—a comely woman in her day—Quiller-Couch
}Antonyms: forgetContrasted words: ignore, disregard, *neglect, overlook
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
