Definition of "collector"

The Young Collector's Handbook. By E. C. R. Hadfield and C. Hamilton Ellis. London: Oxford University Press, Amen House, E.C.4. 7½ in. × 5 in. × 1 in. 78 pp. Illustrated. Price 4s. 6d. net.—Most persons are collectors at some periods of their lives. Some outgrow the habit; with others it becomes a mania; and with still others it is a lasting habit intelligently planned as one aspect of a study of a particular subject.

1941 January, “Railway Literature”, in Railway Magazine, page 48

Hungry for fame and the approval of rare-animal collector Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton), Darwin deceives the Captain and his crew into believing they can get enough booty to win the pirate competition by entering Polly in a science fair. So the pirates journey to London in cheerful, blinkered defiance of the Queen, a hotheaded schemer whose royal crest reads simply “I hate pirates.”

2012 April 26, Tasha Robinson, “Film: Reviews: The Pirates! Band Of Misfits”, in The Onion AV Club‎

Andrew Houſtoun and Adam Muſhet, being Tackſmen of the Excize, did Imploy Thomas Rue to be their Collector, and gave him a Sallary of 30. pound Sterling for a year.

1668 July 3rd, James Dalrymple, “Thomas Rue contra Andrew Houſtoun” in The Deciſions of the Lords of Council & Seſſion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 547

I should've left my phone at home 'cause this is a disaster / Callin' like a collector / Sorry, I cannot answer

2010, “Telephone”, performed by Lady Gaga and Beyoncé

Volumes […] without any of tthe collector's own reflections.

1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]

Whereupon he soon after appointed A. W. his collector in Austins; which office he kept till he was admitted Mr. of arts

1655, Anthony Wood, diaries