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