return

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
return/rɪˈtɜːn/

▶verb

• 1 come or go back to a place.

  ■ (return to) go back to (a state or situation).

  ■ (especially of a feeling) come back after a period of absence.

  ■ Golf play the last nine holes in a round of eighteen holes.

• 2 give or send back or put back in place.

  ■ feel, say, or do (the same feeling, action, etc.) in response.

  ■ (in tennis and other sports) hit or send (the ball) back to an opponent.

  ■ American Football intercept (a pass, kick, or fumble by the opposing team) and run upfield with the ball.

• 3 yield or make (a profit).

• 4 (of a judge or jury) state or present (a decision or verdict) in response to a formal request.

• 5 (of an electorate) elect (a person or party) to office.

• 6 Bridge lead (a card) after taking a trick.

• 7 Architecture continue (a wall) in a changed direction, especially at right angles.

▶noun

• 1 an act or the action of returning.

  ■ (also return match or game) a second contest between the same opponents.

  ■ a thing which has been returned, especially an unwanted ticket for an event.

• 2 (also return ticket) Brit. a ticket allowing travel to a place and back again.

• 3 (also returns) a profit from an investment.

• 4 an official report or statement submitted in response to a formal demand: census returns.

  ■ Law an endorsement or report by a court officer or sheriff on a writ.

• 5 (also carriage return) a mechanism or key on a typewriter that returns the carriage to a fixed position at the start of a new line.

  ■ (also return key) a key pressed on a computer keyboard to simulate a carriage return.

• 6 an electrical conductor bringing a current back to its source.

• 7 Architecture a part receding from the line of the front, for example the side of a house or of a window opening.

– phrases
by return (of post) Brit. in the next available mail delivery to the sender.
many happy returns (of the day) a greeting to someone on their birthday.

– derivatives
returnable adjective,
returner noun.

– origin ME: the verb from OFr. returner, from L. re- ‘back’ + tornare ‘to turn’; the noun via Anglo-Norman Fr.