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1588 T. Hariot Briefe Rep. Virginia sig. A4(1) Secondly, that..you may generally know & learne what the countrey is, & therevpon consider how your dealing therein if it proceede, may returne you profit and gaine.

1596 W. Raleigh Discoverie Guiana (new ed.) ⁋iij I was not bounde to satisfie anie man of the quantitie, but such onely as aduentured, if any store had been returned thereof.

1597 A. Munday tr. 2nd Pt. Palmerin D'Oliua xxxii. sig. M 2^v Faine would I request one boone of your Maiestie, the grant whereof shall returne you both profit and honor [Fr. qui ne vous peult tourner qu'à proffit & honneur].

1610 J. Healey tr. St. Augustine Citie of God i. xiv. 25 If the worship of these Gods returne mens happinesse in the life to come.

1612 J. Davies Discouerie Causes Ireland 132 Ireland had beene..Planted, and Improoued; and returned a rich Reuennew to the Crowne of England.

1756 T. Hale et al. Compl. Body Husbandry v. iv. 219/2 The Sheep; an Article of vast Concernment to the Farmer: cheap in the Purchase; easily fed; and returning a great Profit by many several Ways.

1801 R. Fraser Stat. Surv. Co. Wicklow ii. 50 in Gen. View Co. Wicklow We have found people of that class [sc. the common farmer] in Ireland not easily to be persuaded, that they will return a profit to them proportional to their greater trouble or expence.

1833 G. P. Scrope Princ. Polit. Econ. xiii. 341 A very large proportion of the land of this country..would return a profit..upon the capital that might be expended in its conversion from pasture or a state of waste to arable.

1883 Bookseller 11 Dec. 1289/1 Instructed to Sell the following Businesses... In one of the most aristocratic Watering-places on the South Coast, returning nearly £3,000 per annum, at large profits [etc.].

1907 Agric. Gaz. New S. Wales 18 81 We have sent out of this State not less than 55,785 lb. [of wax] year by year, which has returned annually about £6,000.

1937 Life 26 July 85/2 (advt.) Big loads return the largest profit on drivers' wages.

1967 A. J. Matusow Farm Policies & Politics in Truman Years i. 3 Conditioned by the long trauma of the Depression, many food officials labored through the war years more fearful of returning surpluses than of the world food shortages that were mounting yearly.

2005 S. Eyman Lion of Hollywood vi. 180 The forty films it released in the 1932–33 season returned a profit well in excess of $4 million.