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Glite Dictionary
🎾 A ball receiver 🏠 A person coming back
returner

returner

1 2.8
A person who comes back to a job or home after being away
  • noun
  • /rɪˈtɜrnər/
translation icon : regresado
  • Joining us onstage was another of our guests, Mikey Neumann of Gearbox and author of The Returners.
  • the top returner

I don't think they'll necessarily back down because they've given themselves some wiggle room by using that phrase frequent returners.

Examples

  • He gets his time as a returner, and he isn't setting the world on fire with that.

    Blog text (34)

  • I need a punt returner.

    Draft Day (2014)

  • It's nice to have that many returners.

    Blog text (29)

  • It might be time to consider another returner.

    Blog text (3)

  • A returner.

    Prospect (2018)

  • A returner.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Some of the delegates want a change of direction; some are returners to work after a career break; some work in paid employment part-time and learn with us for 2-3 days a week.

    Blog text (26)

  • Maybe it's because I've successfully blocked out most of The Jacoby Jones Experience, but I do not remember seeing a returner so frequently make the wrong decision about whether to take a ball out of the end zone.

    Blog text (14)

  • Last year's top scorer, Jazlyn Gibbs, graduated, so the team leans on their 11 returners to make up for the loss.

    Blog text (30)

  • After two years away, Maria is excited to be a returner at her old school, where she has many friends.

Synonyms

returnee
vsreturner
6 4.4

A person who comes back to their home country after living abroad

is used for people who come back to any place, organization, or situation
repatriate
vsreturner
7.7

A person who has come back to their own country

is broader, used for people coming back to groups, workplaces, or other places

Antonyms

leaver
2 5.8

A person who leaves a place or group at the end of a period

Surface Forms

returner singular
returners plural

Morphology

returner = return (transparent) = return + er

Standard agent-noun formation from the verb 'return' using '-er', meaning 'one who returns'.

Etymology

Returner comes from the parts re- 'again' and turn 'to go back'. So a returner is literally someone who 'turns back', a person who comes back to a place after being away.