Return (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Returned (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Returning.] [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.” Chaucer.
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On their embattled ranks the waves return. Milton.
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If they returned out of bondage, it must be into a state of freedom. Locke.
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Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Gen. iii. 19.
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2. To come back, or begin again, after an interval, regular or irregular; to appear again.
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With the year
Seasons return; but not me returns
Day or the sweet approach of even or morn. Milton.
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3. To speak in answer; to reply; to respond.
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He said, and thus the queen of heaven returned. Pope.
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4. To revert; to pass back into possession.
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And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David. 1Kings xii. 26.
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5. To go back in thought, narration, or argument. “But to return to my story.” Fielding.
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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.
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At the return of the year the king of Syria will come up against thee. 1 Kings xx. 22.
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His personal return was most required and necessary. Shak.
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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.
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You made my liberty your late request:
Is no return due from a grateful breast? Dryden.
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3. That which is returned. Specifically: (a) A payment; a remittance; a requital.
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I do expect return
Of thrice three times the value of this bond. Shak.
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(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.
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The fruit from many days of recreation is very little; but from these few hours we spend in prayer, the return is great. Jer. Taylor.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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7. pl. (Fort. & Mining) The turnings and windings of a trench or mine.
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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.
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