The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Collection \Col*lec"tion\, n. [L. collectio: cf. F. collection.]
   1. The act or process of collecting or of gathering; as, the
      collection of specimens.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. That which is collected; as:
      (a) A gathering or assemblage of objects or of persons. "A
          collection of letters." --Macaulay.
      (b) A gathering of money for charitable or other purposes,
          as by passing a contribution box for freewill
          offerings. "The collection for the saints." --1 Cor.
          xvi. 1
      (c) (Usually in pl.) That which is obtained in payment of
          demands.
      (d) An accumulation of any substance. "Collections of
          moisture." --Whewell. "A purulent collection."
          --Dunglison.
          [1913 Webster]

   3. The act of inferring or concluding from premises or
      observed facts; also, that which is inferred. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            We may safely say thus, that wrong collections have
            been hitherto made out of those words by modern
            divines.                              --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. The jurisdiction of a collector of excise. [Eng.]

   Syn: Gathering; assembly; assemblage; group; crowd;
        congregation; mass; heap; compilation.
        [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

collection
    n 1: several things grouped together or considered as a whole
         [syn: collection, aggregation, accumulation,
         assemblage]
    2: a publication containing a variety of works [syn:
       collection, compendium]
    3: request for a sum of money; "an appeal to raise money for
       starving children" [syn: solicitation, appeal,
       collection, ingathering]
    4: the act of gathering something together [syn: collection,
       collecting, assembling, aggregation]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

188 Moby Thesaurus words for "collection":
   Festschrift, abundance, accumulation, agglomeration, aggregation,
   album, alms, alms fee, amassment, ana, analects, anthology,
   aquarium, assemblage, assembling, assembly, assortment,
   back number, backlog, band, beauties, body, boiling,
   bringing together, budget, bunch, burnt offering, call-up, canon,
   canvass, census, charity, chrestomathy, clippings, clump, cluster,
   collectanea, collected works, collecting, colligation, collocation,
   colluvies, combination, commissariat, commissary, company,
   comparison, compilation, complete works, concourse, concurrence,
   confluence, conflux, congeries, conglomeration, congregation,
   contribution, convergence, copy, cornucopia, corpus, corralling,
   crew, crowd, cumulation, cuttings, data, data-gathering, delectus,
   dole, donation, donative, drink offering, dump, edition,
   ex voto offering, excerpta, excerpts, extracts, florilegium,
   flowers, fragments, fund, garden, garland, garnering, gathering,
   gleaning, gleanings, group, handout, heap, heave offering,
   hecatomb, hoard, holdings, holocaust, human sacrifice, immolation,
   impression, incense, infanticide, ingathering, inventory, issue,
   junction, juxtaposition, kit, larder, libation, library,
   library edition, lot, mactation, mass, material, materials,
   materiel, medley, menagerie, miscellanea, miscellany, mobilization,
   munitions, museum, muster, number, oblation, offering, offertory,
   omnibus, omnium gatherum, outfit, party, peace offering,
   photograph album, piacular offering, pile, pittance, plenitude,
   plenty, printing, provisionment, provisions, quotation book,
   rations, raw data, repertoire, repertory, rick, rodeo, roundup,
   ruck, sacramental offering, sacrifice, scapegoat, school edition,
   scrapbook, self-immolation, self-sacrifice, series, set,
   solicitation, stack, stock, stock-in-trade, stockpile, store,
   stores, subscription, supplies, supply on hand, survey, suttee,
   sutteeism, symposium, thank offering, tithe, trade book,
   trade edition, treasure, treasury, trove, variety, volume,
   votive offering, whole offering, zoo



Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:

Collection
   The Christians in Palestine, from various causes, suffered from
   poverty. Paul awakened an interest in them among the Gentile
   churches, and made pecuniary collections in their behalf (Acts
   24:17; Rom. 15:25, 26; 1 Cor. 16:1-3; 2 Cor. 8:9; Gal. 2:10).