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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



... return to Stornham the outward decorum of his own conduct had entertained him and he had kept it up with an increasing appreciation of its usefulness in the present situation. Whatsoever happened in the end, it was the part of discretion to present to the rural ...
— The Shuttle • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... company. The right effort of the teacher is to give the positive—to present, as he may, the vision of reality, for the perception of which, and not for the discovery of falsehood, is man created. This will not only cast out the demon, but so people the house that he will not dare return. If a man might disprove all the untruths in creation, he would hardly be a hair's breadth nearer the end of his own making. It is better to hold honestly one fragment of truth in the midst of immeasurable ...
— England's Antiphon • George MacDonald
... Father: A change of plans makes me return home at once. Please wait and see me there. I've something important to ...
— The Air Trust • George Allan England
... loosing and setting the sails; and presently they were under way, having slipped their moorings and transferred them to the skiff, which they left behind to serve as a buoy to guide them to the moorings upon their return. The lugger was a beautiful boat, according to the idea of beauty that then prevailed, having been constructed by Mr George Heard—familiarly known as Gramfer Heard—shipbuilder of Devonport, and Dick Chichester's master, as a kind of yacht, for his own especial use and enjoyment. She was ...
— Two Gallant Sons of Devon - A Tale of the Days of Queen Bess • Harry Collingwood
... Having said this, I return to Prince Dolor, that little lame boy whom many may think so exceedingly to be pitied. But if you had seen him as he sat patiently untying his wonderful cloak, which was done up in a very tight and perplexing parcel, using skillfully his ...
— The Little Lame Prince - And: The Invisible Prince; Prince Cherry; The Prince With The Nose - The Frog-Prince; Clever Alice • Miss Mulock--Pseudonym of Maria Dinah Craik


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