From his tenants and entourage, the king merely collected their tribute.

He was merely collecting himself to speak very plainly.

I merely collect souls; I don't have the authority to give them back.

But it seemed that Hoag was merely collecting his wits.

The marquess had no administrative role over his marquessate; he merely collected a portion of the tax revenues.

I merely collected more evidence for my analysis, which, by the way, can make or break your research.

We merely collect the data now, and establish the risk of developing a disease if exposed to a particular risk factor.

Or have we wandered so far we're merely collecting vagaries of copyists and typesetters?

The city merely collects the money from local businesses and hands it over to the group.

They merely collect orders and pass them back to their principal who fulfils the orders direct.