Definition of return

• v. i. - To turn back; to go or come again to the same place or condition.
• v. i. - To come back, or begin again, after an interval, regular or irregular; to appear again.
• v. i. - To speak in answer; to reply; to respond.
• v. i. - To revert; to pass back into possession.
• v. i. - To go back in thought, narration, or argument.
• v. t. - To bring, carry, send, or turn, back; as, to return a borrowed book, or a hired horse.
• v. t. - To repay; as, to return borrowed money.
• v. t. - To give in requital or recompense; to requite.
• v. t. - To give back in reply; as, to return an answer; to return thanks.
• v. t. - To retort; to throw back; as, to return the lie.
• v. t. - To report, or bring back and make known.
• v. t. - 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.
• v. t. - Hence, to elect according to the official report of the election officers.
• v. t. - 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.
• v. t. - To convey into official custody, or to a general depository.
• v. t. - To bat (the ball) back over the net.
• v. t. - To lead in response to the lead of one's partner; as, to return a trump; to return a diamond for a club.
• n. - 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.
• n. - 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.
• n. - That which is returned.
• n. - A payment; a remittance; a requital.
• n. - An answer; as, a return to one's question.
• n. - 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.
• n. - The profit on, or advantage received from, labor, or an investment, undertaking, adventure, etc.
• n. - 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.
• n. - The rendering back or delivery of writ, precept, or execution, to the proper officer or court.
• n. - The certificate of an officer stating what he has done in execution of a writ, precept, etc., indorsed on the document.
• n. - The sending back of a commission with the certificate of the commissioners.
• n. - A day in bank. See Return day, below.
• n. - 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.
• n. - The turnings and windings of a trench or mine.