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Return   /rɪtˈərn/  /ritˈərn/   Listen
noun
Return  n.  
1.
The act of returning (intransitive), or coming back to the same place or condition; as, the return of one long absent; the return of health; the return of the seasons, or of an anniversary. "At the return of the year the king of Syria will come up against thee." "His personal return was most required and necessary."
2.
The act of returning (transitive), or sending back to the same place or condition; restitution; repayment; requital; retribution; as, the return of anything borrowed, as a book or money; a good return in tennis. "You made my liberty your late request: Is no return due from a grateful breast?"
3.
That which is returned. Specifically:
(a)
A payment; a remittance; a requital. "I do expect return Of thrice three times the value of this bond."
(b)
An answer; as, a return to one's question.
(c)
An account, or formal report, of an action performed, of a duty discharged, of facts or statistics, and the like; as, election returns; a return of the amount of goods produced or sold; especially, in the plural, a set of tabulated statistics prepared for general information.
(d)
The profit on, or advantage received from, labor, or an investment, undertaking, adventure, etc. "The fruit from many days of recreation is very little; but from these few hours we spend in prayer, the return is great."
4.
(Arch.) The continuation in a different direction, most often at a right angle, of a building, face of a building, or any member, as a molding or mold; applied to the shorter in contradistinction to the longer; thus, a facade of sixty feet east and west has a return of twenty feet north and south.
5.
(Law)
(a)
The rendering back or delivery of writ, precept, or execution, to the proper officer or court.
(b)
The certificate of an officer stating what he has done in execution of a writ, precept, etc., indorsed on the document.
(c)
The sending back of a commission with the certificate of the commissioners.
(d)
A day in bank. See Return day, below.
6.
(Mil. & Naval) An official account, report, or statement, rendered to the commander or other superior officer; as, the return of men fit for duty; the return of the number of the sick; the return of provisions, etc.
7.
pl. (Fort. & Mining) The turnings and windings of a trench or mine.
Return ball, a ball held by an elastic string so that it returns to the hand from which it is thrown, used as a plaything.
Return bend, a pipe fitting for connecting the contiguous ends of two nearly parallel pipes lying alongside or one above another.
Return day (Law), the day when the defendant is to appear in court, and the sheriff is to return the writ and his proceedings.
Return flue, in a steam boiler, a flue which conducts flame or gases of combustion in a direction contrary to their previous movement in another flue.
Return pipe (Steam Heating), a pipe by which water of condensation from a heater or radiator is conveyed back toward the boiler.


verb
Return  v. t.  
1.
To bring, carry, send, or turn, back; as, to return a borrowed book, or a hired horse. "Both fled attonce, ne ever back returned eye."
2.
To repay; as, to return borrowed money.
3.
To give in requital or recompense; to requite. "The Lord shall return thy wickedness upon thine own head."
4.
To give back in reply; as, to return an answer; to return thanks.
5.
To retort; to throw back; as, to return the lie. "If you are a malicious reader, you return upon me, that I affect to be thought more impartial than I am."
6.
To report, or bring back and make known. "And all the people answered together,... and Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord."
7.
To render, as an account, usually an official account, to a superior; to report officially by a list or statement; as, to return a list of stores, of killed or wounded; to return the result of an election.
8.
Hence, to elect according to the official report of the election officers. (Eng.)
9.
To bring or send back to a tribunal, or to an office, with a certificate of what has been done; as, to return a writ.
10.
To convey into official custody, or to a general depository. "Instead of a ship, he should levy money, and return the same to the treasurer for his majesty's use."
11.
(Tennis) To bat (the ball) back over the net.
12.
(Card Playing) To lead in response to the lead of one's partner; as, to return a trump; to return a diamond for a club.
To return a lead (Card Playing), to lead the same suit led by one's partner.
Synonyms: To restore; requite; repay; recompense; render; remit; report.


Return  v. i.  (past & past part. returned; pres. part. returning)  
1.
To turn back; to go or come again to the same place or condition. "Return to your father's house." "On their embattled ranks the waves return." "If they returned out of bondage, it must be into a state of freedom." "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
2.
To come back, or begin again, after an interval, regular or irregular; to appear again. "With the year Seasons return; but not me returns Day or the sweet approach of even or morn."
3.
To speak in answer; to reply; to respond. "He said, and thus the queen of heaven returned."
4.
To revert; to pass back into possession. "And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David."
5.
To go back in thought, narration, or argument. "But to return to my story."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Return" Quotes from Famous Books



... of Miss Redbud and Miss Fanny—used our best efforts to place upon record what they amused themselves with, laughed at, and took pleasure in, under the golden trees of the beautiful woods, and in the happy autumn fields—now we are at liberty to return to our good old border town, and those other personages of the history, whose merits ...
— The Last of the Foresters • John Esten Cooke
... that it shall be over in one day, ma'am. She will continue to be on bail, and can return home. I will see that she is not annoyed as ...
— Orley Farm • Anthony Trollope
... and successors in the gem-importing business were promptly on hand to claim their property; an enterprise in which they succeeded after the determination of some legal complications; and the Paternostros started with the ruby on the return to London. ...
— The Paternoster Ruby • Charles Edmonds Walk
... return to Harrisburg?" Byron Polder inquired. "My son," he went on to Howat Penny, "is a practical iron man. I say iron, although that is no longer the phrase, because of natural associations. The present system of the manufacture ...
— The Three Black Pennys - A Novel • Joseph Hergesheimer
... information bureaus for him, and no means whatever of keeping him informed upon progress and discovery in medical science. He is not even required to set apart a month or so in every two or three years in order to return to lectures and hospitals and refresh his knowledge. Indeed, the income of the average general practitioner would not permit of such a thing, and almost the only means of contact between him and current thought lies in the one or other of our ...
— An Englishman Looks at the World • H. G. Wells


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