Definition of Return

Return

To turn back; to go or come again to the same place or condition.

To come back, or begin again, after an interval, regular or irregular; to appear again.

To speak in answer; to reply; to respond.

To revert; to pass back into possession.

To go back in thought, narration, or argument.

To bring, carry, send, or turn, back; as, to return a borrowed book, or a hired horse.

To repay; as, to return borrowed money.

To give in requital or recompense; to requite.

To give back in reply; as, to return an answer; to return thanks.

To retort; to throw back; as, to return the lie.

To report, or bring back and make known.

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.

Hence, to elect according to the official report of the election officers.

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.

To convey into official custody, or to a general depository.

To bat (the ball) back over the net.

To lead in response to the lead of one's partner; as, to return a trump; to return a diamond for a club.

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.

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.

That which is returned.

A payment; a remittance; a requital.

An answer; as, a return to one's question.

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.

The profit on, or advantage received from, labor, or an investment, undertaking, adventure, etc.

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.

The rendering back or delivery of writ, precept, or execution, to the proper officer or court.

The certificate of an officer stating what he has done in execution of a writ, precept, etc., indorsed on the document.

The sending back of a commission with the certificate of the commissioners.

A day in bank. See Return day, below.

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.

The turnings and windings of a trench or mine.

Related Definitions:

Absent, According, Account, Act, Action, Advantage, Adventure, After, Again, Amount, An, And, Angle, Anniversary, Answer, Any, Anything, Appear, Applied, Argument, As, At, Back, Ball, Bank, Bat, Been, Begin, Below, Book, Borrowed, Bring, Building, By, Carry, Certificate, Club, Come, Coming, Commander, Commission, Condition, Continuation, Contradistinction, Convey, Court, Custody, Day, Delivery, Depository, Diamond, Different, Direction, Discharged, Document, Done, Duty, East, Elect, Election, Especially, Execution, Facade, Face, Feet, Fit, For, Formal, From, General, Give, Go, Good, Goods, He, Health, Hence, Hired, Horse, Has, In, Indorsed, Information, Interval, Into, Intransitive, Investment, Irregular, Is, Killed, Known, Labor, Lead, Lie, Like, List, Long, Longer, Make, Member, Men, Mine, Mold, Molding, Most, Money, Narration, Net, North, Number, Of, Office, Officer, Official, Officially, Often, On, One, Or, Other, Over, Partner, Pass, Payment, Performed, Place, Plural, Possession, Precept, Prepared, Produced, Profit, Proper, Question, Received, Recompense, Regular, Remittance, Render, Rendered, Rendering, Repay, Repayment, Reply, Report, Requital, Requite, Respond, Response, Restitution, Result, Retort, Retribution, Return, Returned, Returning, Revert, Right, Same, See, Send, Sending, Set, Sick, Sixty, Sold, South, Speak, Statement, Stating, Statistics, Superior, Tabulated, Tennis, Thanks, That, The, Thought, Throw, Thus, To, Transitive, Trench, Tribunal, Trump, Turn, Twenty, Undertaking, West, What, Which, With, Wounded, Writ

Quote of the Day

Enjoy five great Quotes of the Day

Your Favorite Topics

Love Quotes
Life Quotes
Funny Quotes
Friendship Quotes
Wisdom Quotes
Motivational Quotes
Inspirational Quotes

Return Quotations

If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don't, they never were.
Khalil Gibran

Most people return small favors, acknowledge medium ones and repay greater ones - with ingratitude.
Benjamin Franklin

We cannot conceive of matter being formed of nothing, since things require a seed to start from... Therefore there is not anything which returns to nothing, but all things return dissolved into their elements.
William Shakespeare

My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.
Maya Angelou

Bottom line is, I didn't return to Apple to make a fortune. I've been very lucky in my life and already have one. When I was 25, my net worth was $100 million or so. I decided then that I wasn't going to let it ruin my life. There's no way you could ever spend it all, and I don't view wealth as something that validates my intelligence.
Steve Jobs

For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.
Leonardo da Vinci

One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice; and it is not right to return an injury, or to do evil to any man, however much we have suffered from him.
Socrates

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.
Niccolo Machiavelli

No one is a friend to his friend who does not love in return.
Plato

Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source.
Leo Tolstoy