RETURNING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does returning mean? 

• RETURNING (adjective)
  The adjective RETURNING has 2 senses:

1. tending to return to an earlier state

2. tending to be turned back

  Familiarity information: RETURNING used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RETURNING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Tending to return to an earlier state

Synonyms:

returning; reverting

Similar:

regressive (opposing progress; returning to a former less advanced state)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Tending to be turned back

Synonyms:

returning; reversive

Similar:

backward (directed or facing toward the back or rear)

 Context examples 

Returning in silence to his seat, therefore, he remained for some minutes most civilly answering all Mrs. Morland's common remarks about the weather and roads.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Instead of returning to the king, however, he conducted his troop by byways back to the forest, and called forth Iron Hans.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

That was enough time to show major increases in the number of fish and the diversity of species returning, and that these were staying beyond an initial period.

(Loudspeakers used to attract fish back to dying coral reefs, SciDev.Net)

Then returning to his former earnest tone—"My first wish for all whom I am interested in, is that they should be firm.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

How people feel when they are returning home from an absence, long or short, I did not know: I had never experienced the sensation.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He is still able to think and act; and I write, by his desire, to propose your returning home.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Within 30 days after stopping the drug, they found that the microglia had repopulated the retina, returning to normal density after 150 days.

(Immune cells in the retina can spontaneously regenerate, National Institutes of Health)

Now there would be pleasure in her returning—Every thing would be a pleasure.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Although many of the particles were ejected clear of Bennu, the team tracked some particles that orbited Bennu as satellites before returning to the asteroid’s surface.

(NASA Mission Reveals Asteroid Has Big Surprises, NASA)

Mary, one of the tribe of Silva, eight years old, keeping watch, raised a screech at sight of his returning consciousness.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)