reports

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of report.

   Field reports from several regions described the same unusual weather pattern.

   The auditors compared the quarterly reports against the bank's records.

   Note

   A regular plural that carries every noun meaning along with it: written accounts, the sharp cracks of gunfire, and, in office language, the employees ranked below a manager. Accounts usually take by for the author and on for the subject, as in reports by the auditors on the bank. The same spelling is also the verb's present form. After the, these or several it is the noun, and after a singular subject it is the verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of report.

   The sensor reports any temperature change directly to the control room.

   Whenever a witness comes forward, the officer reports the details to headquarters.

   Note

   Singular subjects take this form: he, she, it, the sensor, the officer. Every other present-tense subject takes bare report. The meaning shifts with the construction. Reports the incident means relates it, reports a colleague means lodges a formal complaint about him, and reports for duty simply means shows up at the appointed time. The old reflexive sense, to appeal to someone for support, is obsolete.

   She reports for duty at six every morning.

   He reports his supervisor for misconduct.

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