fire vs return

fire

verb
  • To terminate a contract with a client; to drop a client. 

  • To shoot a gun, cannon, or similar weapon. 

  • To initiate an event (by means of an event handler). 

  • To forcibly direct (something). 

  • To shoot (a gun, rocket/missile, or analogous device). 

  • To drive away by setting a fire. 

  • To animate; to give life or spirit to. 

  • To shoot; to attempt to score a goal. 

  • To set (something, often a building) on fire. 

  • To set off an explosive in a mine. 

  • To light up as if by fire; to illuminate. 

  • To feed or serve the fire of. 

  • To operate a rocket engine to produce thrust. 

  • To terminate the employment contract of (an employee), especially for cause (such as misconduct or poor performance). 

  • To inflame; to irritate, as the passions. 

  • To heat as with fire, but without setting on fire, as ceramic, metal objects, etc. 

  • To cause an action potential in a cell. 

  • To cauterize. 

noun
  • A heater or stove used in place of a real fire (such as an electric fire). 

  • The bullets or other projectiles fired from a gun or other ranged weapon. 

  • Splendour; brilliancy; lustre; hence, a star. 

  • The elements necessary to start a fire. 

  • Strength of passion, whether love or hate. 

  • Red coloration in a piece of opal. 

  • The occurrence, often accidental, of fire in a certain place, causing damage and danger. 

  • A (usually self-sustaining) chemical reaction involving the bonding of oxygen with carbon or other fuel, with the production of heat and the presence of flame or smouldering. 

  • Liveliness of imagination or fancy; intellectual and moral enthusiasm. 

  • An instance of this chemical reaction, especially when intentionally created and maintained in a specific location to a useful end (such as a campfire or a hearth fire). 

  • A planned bombardment by artillery or similar weapons, or the capability to deliver such. 

  • A severe trial; anything inflaming or provoking. 

  • An instance of firing one or more rocket engines. 

  • The aforementioned chemical reaction of burning, considered one of the Classical elements or basic elements of alchemy. 

adj
  • Amazing; excellent. 

return

verb
  • To relinquish control to the calling procedure. 

  • To elect according to the official report of the election officers. 

  • To recur; to come again. 

  • To throw a ball back to the wicket-keeper (or a fielder at that position) from somewhere in the field. 

  • To come or go back (to a place or person). 

  • To give in requital or recompense; to requite. 

  • To give something back to its original holder or owner. 

  • To report, or bring back and make known. 

  • To go back in thought, narration, or argument. 

  • To place or put back something where it had been. 

  • To bat the ball back over the net in response to a serve. 

  • To play a card as a result of another player's lead. 

  • To pass (data) back to the calling procedure. 

  • To say in reply; to respond. 

  • To take back something to a vendor for a complete or partial refund. 

noun
  • The act of relinquishing control to the calling procedure. 

  • An answer. 

  • A return value: the data passed back from a called procedure. 

  • A return pipe, returning fluid to a boiler or other central plant (compare with flow pipe, which carries liquid away from a central plant). 

  • The act of catching a ball after a punt and running it back towards the opposing team. 

  • A return ticket. 

  • An item that is returned, e.g. due to a defect, or the act of returning it. 

  • An account, or formal report, of an action performed, of a duty discharged, of facts or statistics, etc.; especially, in the plural, a set of tabulated statistics prepared for general information. 

  • The continuation in a different direction, most often at a right angle, of a building, face of a building, or any member, such as a moulding; applied to the shorter in contradistinction to the longer. 

  • Gain or loss from an investment. 

  • A report of income submitted to a government for purposes of specifying exact tax payment amounts; a tax return. 

  • A throw from a fielder to the wicket-keeper or to another fielder at the wicket. 

  • A carriage return character. 

  • The act of returning. 

  • A short perpendicular extension of a desk, usually slightly lower. 

How often have the words fire and return occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )