- (v.t.) To report or bring back and make known.
- (n.) A payment; a remittance; a requital.
- (v.t.) Hence, to elect according to the official report of the election officers.
- (v.t.) To convey into official custody or to a general depository.
- (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.
- (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.
- (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.) That which is returned.
- (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.) 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.
- (v.t.) To bat (the ball) back over the net.
- (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.
- (v.t.) To give back in reply; as, to return an answer; to return thanks.
- (v.i.) To speak in answer; to reply; to respond.
- (v.t.) To bring, carry, send or turn, back; as, to return a borrowed book or a hired horse.
- (n.) The rendering back or delivery of writ, precept or execution, to the proper officer or court.
- (v.t.) To repay; as, to return borrowed money.
- (n.) A day in bank. See Return day, below.
- (n.) The sending back of a commission with the certificate of the commissioners.
- (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.
- (n.) The turnings and windings of a trench or mine.
- (n.) The certificate of an officer stating what he has done in execution of a writ, precept, etc., indorsed on the document.
- (v.i.) To revert; to pass back into possession.
- (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.
- (v.t.) To retort; to throw back; as, to return the lie.
- (v.t.) To give in requital or recompense; to requite.
- (v.i.) To turn back; to go or come again to the same place or condition.
- (n.) The profit on or advantage received from, labor or an investment, undertaking, adventure, etc.
- (v.i.) To go back in thought, narration or argument.
- (v.i.) To come back or begin again, after an interval, regular or irregular; to appear again.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
| APA | Webster's. (2011). return. Retrieved September 20, 2026, from http://smartdefine.org/return/definitions/2055443 |
| Chicago | Webster's. 2011. "return" http://smartdefine.org/return/definitions/2055443 (accessed September 20, 2026). |
| Harvard | Webster's 2011, return, Smart Define, viewed 20 September, 2026, <http://smartdefine.org/return/definitions/2055443>. |
| MLA | Webster's. "return" 27 May 2011. Web. 20 September 2026. <http://smartdefine.org/return/definitions/2055443> |