return stroke

American  

[ri-turn strohk] / rɪˈtɜrn ˌstroʊk /

noun

return strokes plural

1. the movement of a machine part with a back-and-forth motion, such as a piston, the limb of a robot on an assembly line, etc., when it returns to its starting position.

2. Meteorology. the main discharge of electricity in a stroke of lightning, in which the current, after reaching the ground, travels back up to the cloud.

3. Sports. in racket sports, an act of hitting the ball or birdie back after receiving it.

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return stroke Scientific  

/ rĭ-tûrn′ /

1. See reverse lightning

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• return strokes
  plural

Example Sentences

The piston’s return stroke then expels the gas and the now-cooled heat-transfer liquid.

From Economist • May 7, 2015

The rockets trail copper wire, providing an artificial leader to produce a return stroke exactly where and when they want it.

From The Guardian • May 25, 2013

The weak discharge from the cloud, called a leader, sets up a path for the main burst of lightning, the return stroke, which goes in the opposite direction.

From The Guardian • May 25, 2013

Many lightning bolts emit some x-rays, particularly at the point that the return stroke sets off from the ground.

From The Guardian • May 25, 2013

We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke straps our vice.

From A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers by Thoreau, Henry David