| return | |
| 1. v. (intransitive) To come or go back (to a place or person). | |
| Although the birds fly north for the summer, they return here in winter. | |
| 2. v. (intransitive) To go back in thought, narration, or argument. | |
| To return to my story... | |
| 3. v. (intransitive, obsolete) To turn back, retreat. | |
| 4. v. (transitive, obsolete) To turn (something) round. | |
| 5. v. To place or put back something where it had been. | |
| Please return your hands to your lap. | |
| 6. v. To give something back to its original holder or owner. | |
| You should return the library book within one month. | |
| 7. v. To take back something to a vendor for a refund. | |
| If the goods don't work, you can return them. | |
| 8. v. To give in requital or recompense; to requite. | |
| 9. v. (tennis) To bat the ball back over the net in response to a serve. | |
| The player couldn't return the serve because it was so fast. | |
| 10. v. (card games) To play a card as a result of another player's lead. | |
| If one players plays a trump, the others must return a trump. | |
| 11. v. (cricket) To throw a ball back to the wicket-keeper (or a fielder at that position) from somewhere in the field. | |
| 12. v. To say in reply; to respond. | |
| to return an answer; to return thanks | |
| 13. v. (intransitive, computing) To relinquish control to the calling procedure. | |
| 14. v. (transitive, computing) To pass (data) back to the calling procedure. | |
| This function returns the number of files in the directory. | |
| 15. v. (transitive, dated) To retort; to throw back. | |
| to return the lie | |
| 16. v. To report, or bring back and make known. | |
| to return the result of an election | |
| 17. v. (by extension, UK) To elect according to the official report of the election officers. | |
| 18. n. The act of returning. | |
| I expect the house to be spotless upon my return. | |
| 19. n. A return ticket. | |
| Do you want a one-way or a return? | |
| 20. n. An item that is returned, e.g. due to a defect, or the act of returning it. | |
| Last year there were 250 returns of this product, an improvement on the 500 returns the year before. | |
| 21. n. An answer. | |
| a return to one's question | |
| 22. n. An account, or formal report, of an action performed, of a duty discharged, of facts or statistics, etc.; especially, in the plural, a set of tabulated statistics prepared for general information. | |
| election returns; a return of the amount of goods produced or sold | |
| 23. n. Gain or loss from an investment. | |
| It yielded a return of 5%. | |
| 24. n. (taxation, finance): A report of income submitted to a government for purposes of specifying exact tax payment amounts. A tax return. | |
| Hand in your return by the end of the tax year. | |
| 25. n. (computing) A carriage return character. | |
| 26. n. (computing) The act of relinquishing control to the calling procedure. | |
| 27. n. (computing) A return value: the data passed back from a called procedure. | |
| 28. n. A short perpendicular extension of a desk, usually slightly lower. | |
| 29. n. (American football) Catching a ball after a punt and running it back towards the opposing team. | |
| 30. n. (cricket) A throw from a fielder to the wicket-keeper or to another fielder at the wicket. | |
| 31. n. (architecture) The continuation in a different direction, most often at a right angle, of a building, face of a building, or any member, such as a moulding; applied to the shorter in contradistinction | |
| A facade of sixty feet east and west has a return of twenty feet north and south. | |
