• To turn back; to go or come again to the same place or condition. • To come back, or begin again, after an interval, regular or irregular; to appear again. • To speak in answer; to reply; to respond. • To revert; to pass back into possession. • To go back in thought, narration, or argument. • To bring, carry, send, or turn, back; as, to return a borrowed book, or a hired horse. • To repay; as, to return borrowed money. • To give in requital or recompense; to requite. • To give back in reply; as, to return an answer; to return thanks. • To retort; to throw back; as, to return the lie. • To report, or bring back and make known. • 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. • Hence, to elect according to the official report of the election officers. • 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. • To convey into official custody, or to a general depository. • To bat (the ball) back over the net. • To lead in response to the lead of one's partner; as, to return a trump; to return a diamond for a club. • 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. • 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. • That which is returned. • A payment; a remittance; a requital. • An answer; as, a return to one's question. • 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. • The profit on, or advantage received from, labor, or an investment, undertaking, adventure, etc. • 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. • The rendering back or delivery of writ, precept, or execution, to the proper officer or court. • The certificate of an officer stating what he has done in execution of a writ, precept, etc., indorsed on the document. • The sending back of a commission with the certificate of the commissioners. • A day in bank. See Return day, below. • 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. • The turnings and windings of a trench or mine.