bring back

bring back (third-person singular simple present brings back, present participle bringing back, simple past and past participle brought back)

1. (transitive, ditransitive) To fetch something.

   I brought back the groceries.

   Could you bring me back some chocolate?

2. (transitive) To cause someone to remember something from the past.

   The smell of the magnolia brought back sweet memories of my childhood.

3. (transitive) To reenact an old rule or law.

   In the UK it is customary to hold a vote every few years on whether to bring back the death penalty.

4. (transitive) To revive, to resurrect; to cause something dead to be alive once again.
   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XXXII, page 51:

     Her eyes are homes of silent prayer,
     ⁠Nor other thought her mind admits
     ⁠But, he was dead, and there he sits,
     And he that brought him back is there.

   • 1901, W. W. Jacobs, The Monkey's Paw:

     The old man turned and regarded her, and his voice shook. "He has been dead ten days, and besides he — I would not tell you else, but — I could only recognize him by his clothing. If he was too terrible for you to see then, how now?" / "Bring him back," cried the old woman, and dragged him toward the door. "Do you think I fear the child I have nursed?"

• This verb can take two objects, as in bring me back some books / bring back some books to me / bring some books back to me.

• bringback (noun)