Jquery each - Stop loop and return object

Because when you use a return statement inside an each loop, a "non-false" value will act as a continue, whereas false will act as a break. You will need to return false from the each function. Something like this:

function findXX(word) {
    var toReturn; 
    $.each(someArray, function(i) {
        $('body').append('-> '+i+'<br />');
        if(someArray[i] == word) {
            toReturn = someArray[i];
            return false;
        }   
    }); 
    return toReturn; 
}

From the docs:

We can break the $.each() loop at a particular iteration by making the callback function return false. Returning non-false is the same as a continue statement in a for loop; it will skip immediately to the next iteration.

modified $.each function

$.fn.eachReturn = function(arr, callback) {
   var result = null;
   $.each(arr, function(index, value){
       var test = callback(index, value);
       if (test) {
           result = test;
           return false;
       }
   });
   return result ;
}

it will break loop on non-false/non-empty result and return it back, so in your case it would be

return $.eachReturn(someArray, function(i){
    ...