return

To return is to go back to where you were, or to give something back to where it came from. Return home, return a book, return a phone call.

The two directions are the thing to hold apart. Intransitive: you return, you come back yourself. Transitive: you return something, you send it back. Both are ordinary. Watch return back, which is a very common error and always wrong — the back is already inside the word. As a noun, return covers the going back, the giving back, the profit on money, and in British English a return ticket, which American English calls a round trip. And in return means as an exchange for something.

Phrases it lives in

• in return — as the thing given back in exchange
• the point of no return — the moment after which turning back costs more than going on