return.
To come or go back (to a place or person).
Meaning & usage
To come or go back (to a place or person).
Although the birds fly north for the summer, they return here in winter.
To go back in thought, narration, or argument.
To return to my story[…]
To recur; to come again.
Winter returns every year.
To turn back, retreat.
To turn (something) round.
To place or put back something where it had been.
Please return your hands to your lap.
Strain the stock and return it to the pan.
To give something back to its original holder or owner.
You should return the library book within one month.
To give in requital or recompense; to requite.
To reciprocate (a visit or telephone call, electronic message, etc.).
Hello, I’m just returning your call. What did you want to talk about?
I wrote to my ex-wife but she won't return my emails.
To take back something to a vendor for a complete or partial refund.
Yeah, it’s $600,000 but, if it doesn’t work, you can always return it. As long as it’s undamaged and in the original packaging, I’ll give you a full refund.
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.
To play a card as a result of another player’s lead.
If one players plays a trump, the others must return a trump.
To throw a ball back to the wicket-keeper (or a fielder at that position) from somewhere in the field.
To say in reply; to respond.
to return an answer; to return thanks; “Do it yourself!” she returned.
To relinquish control to the calling procedure.
To pass (data) back to the calling procedure.
This function returns the number of files in the directory.
To retort; to throw back.
to return the lie
To report, or bring back and make known.
to return the result of an election
To elect to a certain office.
he was returned as a Member of Parliament
To give a thrust or cut after parrying a sword-thrust.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English returnen, retornen, from Anglo-Norman returner, from Old French retourner, retorner, from Medieval Latin retornare (“to turn back”), from re- + tornare (“to turn”). By surface analysis, re- + turn. Compare beturn. Displaced native Old English eftċierran, literally "eft-char".
The act of returning.
I expect the house to be spotless upon my return.
A return ticket.
Do you want a one-way or a return?
An item that is returned, e.g. due to a defect.
An answer.
a return to one’s question
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
Gain or loss from an investment.
It yielded a return of 5%.
A report of income submitted to a government for purposes of specifying exact tax payment amounts; a tax return.
Hand in your return within 90 days of the end of the tax year.
A carriage return character.
The act of relinquishing control to the calling procedure.
A return value: the data passed back from a called procedure.
A return pipe, returning fluid to a boiler or other central plant (compare with flow pipe, which carries liquid away from a central plant).
The boiler technician had to cut out the heating return to access the safety valve.
A roadway along which foul air travels from the face on its way out of the mine.
The act of catching a ball after a punt and running it back towards the opposing team.
A throw from a fielder to the wicket-keeper or to another fielder at the wicket.
A short perpendicular extension of a desk, usually slightly lower.
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 to the longer.
A facade of sixty feet east and west has a return of twenty feet north and south.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English returnen, retornen, from Anglo-Norman returner, from Old French retourner, retorner, from Medieval Latin retornare (“to turn back”), from re- + tornare (“to turn”). By surface analysis, re- + turn. Compare beturn. Displaced native Old English eftċierran, literally "eft-char".
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.