returns

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of return.

   Investors compared the returns on several different funds.

   She files her tax returns early every year.

   Note

   Most uses of the noun simply add -s, but the plural also carries meanings of its own. In the sense of a formal account or report, returns in the plural especially means a set of tabulated statistics prepared for general information. Gains or losses on investments are spoken of the same way: the returns on a fund. Only countable uses take a plural; the act of returning in general does not.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of return.

   The swallow returns to the same nest each spring.

   The cashier returns the correct change without counting it twice.

   Note

   The present-tense form for a singular subject. It is spelled exactly like the noun plural, so context does the sorting. A subject in front marks the verb (the swallow returns), while a determiner marks the noun (her returns). The -s appears in both main kinds of use, going back (he returns home) and putting something back (he returns the keys).

3. 3
   nouncountableplural

   Goods sent back to the retailer, wholesaler, or supplier.

   Damaged returns are inspected before any refund is issued.

   The warehouse sorts returns by reason code each morning.

   Note

   A trade word that exists only in the plural. It names the goods sent back as a body, so it takes a plural verb: returns are inspected, returns have risen. Publishing measures them closely. The share of unsold books that booksellers send back is called the rate of returns, and Irina Dunn's The Writer's Guide (2002) puts it at between 25 and 35 percent.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   The act of rendering a writ back to the proper officer.

   The bailiff's returns recorded the manner of service on each defendant.

   Late returns of the writs delayed the proceedings by a full week.

   Note

   In court practice, a writ goes out to be served or carried out, and an officer such as a sheriff later sends it back to the issuing court. That sending back is the return. The writ comes back endorsed with a report of what was done, which is why the word slides easily from the act to the record. It shares that reporting sense with the military strength report.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   An official report of the soldiers fit for duty.

   The morning returns showed two companies below fighting strength.

   Officers submitted their returns before the regiment broke camp.

   Similarreports

   Note

   Army paperwork, not homecoming. A commanding officer submits these periodic tables of a unit's strength, showing the soldiers present and fit for duty, to higher command for musters and planning. The word stays in the plural because it is a set of figures, much like the tabulated statistics carried by the general plural. It pairs naturally with a time of day, as in the morning returns.

6. 6
   noununcountable

   Tobacco that is pale in color and mild.

   The old gentleman favored returns, packing his pipe each evening with the pale leaf.

   A pouch of returns cost only a few pennies at the corner shop.

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