From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgather dustgather dustUSE somethingif something gathers dust, it is not being used books just gathering dust on the shelf → gather
Examples from the Corpus
gather dust• The biggest disadvantage to having silk flowers is that they gather dust.• We sold our piano because it was just gathering dust.• Each one looked as if it was consulted too often to gather dust.• Some of the new equipment is just gathering dust because the staff have not been trained to use it.• The Macintosh factory kept churning out gorgeous boxes that gathered dust in dealerships.• Millions of these books are shredded yearly or allowed to rot and gather dust in purgatorial existence.• The plans lie gathering dust in some government office.• In the home of Hildebrand, gathering dust, lay a long, padded box containing a golden rod entwined with roses.• Excitement fades to disillusionment, and so another piece of technology goes to gather dust on a storeroom shelf.• Beck had no intention of letting his report gather dust on the legislative shelves.• Its conclusions were left to gather dust with all the commission reports and suggestions accumulated over the past thirty years. 