return

Webster's Dictionary (1913)

Origin: OE. returnen, retournen, F. retourner; pref. re- re- + tourner to turn. See Turn.

1. To turn back; to go or come again to the same place or condition. “Return to your father's house.” Geoffrey Chaucer

On their embattled ranks the waves return.— John Milton

If they returned out of bondage, it must be into a state of freedom.— John Locke

Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.— Gen. iii. 19.

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.— John Milton

3. To speak in answer; to reply; to respond.

He said, and thus the queen of heaven returned.— Alexander Pope

4. To revert; to pass back into possession.

And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David.— 1Kings xii. 26.

5. To go back in thought, narration, or argument. “But to return to my story.” Henry Fielding

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.— Edmund Spenser

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.— 1 Kings ii. 44.

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.— John Dryden

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.— Ex. xix. 8.

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. British

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.— Edward Hyde, first earl of Clarendon

11. Tennis To bat (the ball) back over the net.

12. Card games 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 games, to lead the same suit led by one's partner.

Synonyms: To restore; requite; repay; recompense; render; remit; report.

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.— 1 Kings xx. 22.

His personal return was most required and necessary.— William Shakespeare

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?— John Dryden

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.— William Shakespeare

(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.— Taylor, Jeremy

4. Architecture 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. Blackstone, Sir William

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.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54