- Return
- Return Re*turn", 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.
[1913 Webster]
At the return of the year the king of Syria will come up against thee. --1 Kings xx. 22. [1913 Webster]
His personal return was most required and necessary. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
You made my liberty your late request: Is no return due from a grateful breast? --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
3. That which is returned. Specifically: (a) A payment; a remittance; a requital. [1913 Webster]
I do expect return Of thrice three times the value of this bond. --Shak. [1913 Webster] (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. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
7. pl. (Fort. & Mining) The turnings and windings of a trench or mine. [1913 Webster]
{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. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
