run

verb

1. (intransitive)To move swiftly.

   “Run, and you might still catch the train!”

   “Through the open front door ran Jessamy, down the steps to where Kitto was sitting at the bottom with the pram beside him.”

2. (intransitive)To move swiftly.

   “I have been running all over the building looking for him.”

   “Sorry, I've got to run; my house is on fire!”

   “Once I ran to you (I ran) / Now I run from you / This tainted love you've given / I give you all a boy could give you”

3. (transitive)To move swiftly.

   “I can run a mile, but I can't run the cross-country course.”

4. (transitive)To move swiftly.

   “I was hoping to make the team, but I didn't run the qualifying time.”

5. (intransitive)To move swiftly.

   “The shuttle runs back and forth on these rollers.”

   “As its name suggests, the monorail runs on a single rail.”

   “I felt her fingers running over my cheek.”

6. (transitive)To move swiftly.

   “Every day I run my dog across the field and back.”

   “I'll just run the vacuum cleaner over the carpet.”

   “Run your fingers through my hair.”

   “Run a flag up (the pole/mast)”

   “Challenger and I ran Summerlee along, one at each of his elbows, while Lord John covered our retreat, firing again and again as savage heads snarled at us out of the bushes.”

7. (intransitive, transitive)To move swiftly.

   “The horse will run in the Preakness next year.”

   “I'm not ready to run a marathon.”

   “The car could not be repaired in time for the race and did not run.”

8. (transitive)To move swiftly.

   “Could you run me over to the store?”

   “Please run this report upstairs to director's office.”

9. (intransitive, transitive)To move swiftly.

   “The bus (train, plane, ferry boat, etc) runs between Newport and Riverside.”

   “Small planes run between Alor and Langkawi. BUS: Express busses leave the bus terminal on the corner of Jl. Langgar and Jl. Stesyen for K. Kedah, […]”

   “The first steam ferry or tug, the Little Minnie, ran the river in the 1870s. When vehicles were to cross, a barge was affixed to the Minnie to carry them.”

10. (transitive)To move swiftly.

    “This year, NJ Transit allowed nonmotorists […] to reach the event by running special trains every 2 hours 4 round trips). The location was the old Lackawanna Railroad freight house, about a 10-minute walk from the Boonton Station, which normally has service only during peak-commuting hours on weekdays.”

11. (transitive)To move swiftly.

    “To put it frankly, if you people had to hire others to run the river and survey it for you, if, in short, you can't even run it yourself, why do think you can decide who is and who is not competent? River running, as has been[…]”

12. (intransitive)To move swiftly.
13. (intransitive, transitive)To move swiftly.

    “Then, on their second possession, Isaiah Ford ran for 11 yards after abandoning a flea flicker. [...] The Patriots ran the ball just 27 times despite averaging 5 yards per carry.”

14. (intransitive)To move swiftly.

    “Whenever things get tough, she cuts and runs.”

    “When he's broke, he runs to me for money.”

    “When the alarm went off, the thief dropped the booty and ran.”

15. (figuratively, transitive)To move swiftly.

    “The car in front just ran a red light.”

    “If you have a collision with a vehicle oncoming from the right, after having run priority to the right, you are at fault.”

16. (colloquial, transitive)To move swiftly.
17. (intransitive)To flow.

    “The river runs through the forest into the North Sea.”

    “There's blood running down your leg.”

    “The current runs to the toaster.”

18. (figuratively, intransitive)To flow.

    “There's a strange story running around the neighborhood that you had a miscarriage last year.”

    “The flu is running through my daughter's kindergarten.”

19. (intransitive)To flow.

    “Your nose is running.”

    “Why is the hose still running?”

    “My eyes were watering and now tears are running down my cheeks.”

20. (transitive)To flow.

    “Run the water out into the pool.”

    “They ran the electricity back behind the wall.”

21. (intransitive)To flow.

    “As Wax dissolves, as Ice begins to run,”

    “The Sussex ores run pretty freely in the Fire for Iron-Ores; otherwise they would hardly be worth working.”

22. (intransitive)To flow.

    “During washing, the red from the rug ran onto the white sheet, staining it pink.”

23. To flow.

    “to run bullets”

    “But, my Lord, the fairest Diamonds are rough till they are polished, and the purest Gold must be run and washed, and sifted in the Oar.”

24. To sail before the wind, in distinction from reaching or sailing close-hauled.
25. (transitive)To control or manage; to be in charge of.

    “My uncle ran a corner store for forty years.”

    “She runs the fundraising.”

    “My parents think they run my life.”

    “He is running the candidate's expensive campaign.”

    “A friend of mine who runs an intellectual magazine was grousing about his movie critic, complaining that though the fellow had liked The Godfather (page 58), he had neglected to label it clearly as a masterpiece.”

26. (intransitive)To be a candidate in an election.

    “I have decided to run for governor of California.”

    “We're trying to find somebody to run against him next year.”

27. (transitive)To make participate in certain kinds of competitions.

    “He ran his best horse in the Derby.”

    “We're running two cars in today's rally.”

28. (transitive)To make participate in certain kinds of competitions.

    “The Green Party is running twenty candidates in this election.”

29. To exert continuous activity; to proceed.

    “to run through life; to run in a circle”

30. (intransitive)To be presented in the media.

    “The story will run on the 6-o'clock news.”

    “The latest Robin Williams movie is running at the Silver City theatre.”

    “Her picture ran on the front page of the newspaper.”

31. (transitive)To print or broadcast in the media.

    “run a story; run an ad”

32. (transitive)To smuggle (illegal goods).

    “They are running guns to the rebels.”

    “[...]whereas in the business of laying heavy impositions two and two never made more than one ; which happens by lessening the import, and the strong temptation of running such goods as paid high duties”

33. (transitive)To sort through a large volume of produce in quality control.

    “Looks like we're gonna have to run the tomatoes again.”

34. (intransitive)To extend or persist, statically or dynamically, through space or time.

    “The border runs for 3000 miles.”

    “The leash runs along a wire.”

    “The grain of the wood runs to the right on this table.”

    “It ran in quality from excellent to substandard.”

35. (intransitive)To extend or persist, statically or dynamically, through space or time.

    “The sale will run for ten days.”

    “The contract runs through 2008.”

    “The meeting ran late.”

    “The book runs 655 pages.”

    “The speech runs as follows: …”

36. (transitive)To extend or persist, statically or dynamically, through space or time.

    “I need to run this wire along the wall.”

37. (intransitive)To extend or persist, statically or dynamically, through space or time.

    “My car stopped running.”

    “That computer runs twenty-four hours a day.”

    “The buses don't run on Sundays.”

38. (transitive)To extend or persist, statically or dynamically, through space or time.

    “It's full. You can run the dishwasher now.”

    “Don't run the engine so fast.”

39. (transitive)To execute or carry out a plan, procedure, or program.

    “They ran twenty blood tests on me and they still don't know what's wrong.”

    “Our coach had us running plays for the whole practice.”

    “I will run the sample.”

    “Don't run that software unless you have permission.”

    “My computer is too old to run the new OS.”

40. To pass or go quickly in thought or conversation.

    “to run from one subject to another”

    “Virgil was so well acquainted with this Secret, that to set off his first Georgic, he has run into a set of Precepts, which are almost foreign to his Subject,”

41. (copulative)To become different in a way mentioned (usually to become worse).

    “Our food supplies are running low because money is running short.”

    “They frequently overspent and soon ran into debt.”

    “Tap water always runs freezing cold before running dry.”

    “Have I not cause to rave, and beat my breast, / To rend my heart with grief and run distracted?”

    “I was no more than a boy / In the company of strangers / In the quiet of the railway station / Running scared.”

42. (transitive)To cost an amount of money.

    “Buying a new laptop will run you a thousand dollars.”

    “Laptops run about a thousand dollars apiece.”

43. (intransitive)Of stitches or stitched clothing, to unravel.

    “My stocking is running.”

44. (transitive)To cause stitched clothing to unravel.

    “1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure He took off the nylons & had runned one. He said "now I really look like a street whore!"”

45. To pursue in thought; to carry in contemplation.

    “To run the world back to its first original and infancy, and, as it were, to view nature in its cradle,”

    “Methinks, if it might be, I would gladly understand the Formation of a Soul, run it up to its Punctum Saliens, and see it beat the first conscious Pulse.”

46. To cause to enter; to thrust.

    “to run a sword into or through the body; to run a nail into one's foot”

    ““You run your head into the lion's mouth,” answered Mac-Ivor.”

    “With that he took off his great-coat, and having run his fingers through his hair, thrust one hand gently in the bosom of his waistcoat”

    “There was also hairdressing: hairdressing, too, really was hairdressing in those times — no running a comb through it and that was that. It was curled, frizzed, waved, put in curlers overnight, waved with hot tongs;[…].”

47. To drive or force; to cause, or permit, to be driven.

    “They ran the ship aground.”

    “[...]besides all this, a talkative person must needs be impertinent, and speak many idle words, and so render himself burdensome and odious to Company, and may perchance run himself upon great Inconveniences, by blabbing out his own or other’s Secrets;”

    “[...]and others, accustomed to retired speculations, run natural philosophy into metaphysical notions and the abstract generalities of logic ;”

48. To cause to be drawn; to mark out; to indicate; to determine.

    “to run a line”

49. (transitive)To encounter or incur (a danger or risk).

    “to run the risk of losing one's life”

    “He runneth two dangers.”

50. (obsolete, transitive)To put at hazard; to venture; to risk.

    “He would himself be in the Highlands to receive them, and run his fortune with them.”

51. (obsolete, transitive)To tease with sarcasms and ridicule.
52. To sew (a seam) by passing the needle through material in a continuous line, generally taking a series of stitches on the needle at the same time.
53. To control or have precedence in a card game.

    “Every three or four hands he would run the table.”

54. To be in form thus, as a combination of words.

    “Which Sovereignty, with us, ſo undoubtedly reſideth in the Perſon of the King, that his ordinary Style runneth — Our Sovereign Lord the King: […]”

    “The departure was not unduly prolonged. In the road Mr. Love and the driver favoured the company with a brief chanty running: “Got it?—No, I ain't, 'old on,—Got it? Got it?—No, 'old on sir.””

55. (archaic)To be popularly known; to be generally received.

    “[...]great captains, and even consular men, who first brought them over, took pride in giving them their own names (by which they run a great while in Rome)”

    “Neither was he ignorant what report ran of himselfe.”

56. To have growth or development.

    “Boys and girls run up rapidly.”

    “or the Richness of the Ground cause them [turnips] to run too much to Leaves”

57. To tend, as to an effect or consequence; to incline.

    “A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds.”

    “It hath been observed, that the temperate climates usually run into moderate governments, and the extremes into despotic power.”

58. To have a legal course; to be attached; to continue in force, effect, or operation; to follow; to go in company.

    “Certain covenants run with the land.”

    “Customs run only upon our goods imported or exported, and that but once for all; whereas interest runs as well upon our ships as goods, and must be yearly paid.”

59. To encounter or suffer (a particular, usually bad, fate or misfortune).

    “Don't let me run the fate of all who show indulgence to your sex […].”

60. To strike (the ball) in such a way as to cause it to run along the ground, as when approaching a hole.
61. (rare)To speedrun.
62. (especially)To eject from a game or match.

    “Jackson got himself run in the top of the sixth for arguing a borderline strike three call.”

63. To press (a bank, etc.) with immediate demands for payment.
64. (slang)To play basketball (usually pickup).

    “you wanna run? -- 'do you want to play?'; said to someone not in the game but who is watching and ready to play, when a team needs another player to make five (usually) for a pick-up game”

    “"You wanna run?"”

65. (form-of, participle, past)past participle of rin

noun

1. Act or instance of running, of moving rapidly using the feet.

   “I just got back from my morning run.”

   “Krohn-Dehli took advantage of a lucky bounce of the ball after a battling run on the left flank by Simon Poulsen, dummied two defenders and shot low through goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg's legs after 24 minutes.”

2. Act or instance of hurrying (to or from a place) (not necessarily on foot); dash or errand, trip.

   “I need to make a run to the store.”

   “[…] and on the 18th of January this squadron put to sea. The first place of rendezvous was the boy of port St. Julian, upon the coast of Patagonia, and all accidents were provided against with admirable foresight. Their run to port St. Julian was dangerous […]”

   “Jackson said the white firefighters attempted to make him and other Black firefighters miss runs by not waking them up along with everyone else.”

3. A pleasure trip.

   “Let's go for a run in the car.”

   “And I think of giving her a run in London for a change.”

4. Flight, instance or period of fleeing.

   “During his run from the police, he claimed to have a metaphysical experience which can only be described as “having passed through an abyss.””

5. Migration of fish.
6. A group of fish that migrate, or ascend a river for the purpose of spawning.
7. A literal or figurative path or course for movement relating to:

   “The bus on the Cherry Street run is always crowded.”

   “You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon? It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs.”

8. A literal or figurative path or course for movement relating to:

   “Which run did you do today?”

9. A literal or figurative path or course for movement relating to:
10. A literal or figurative path or course for movement relating to:

    “a good run; a run of fifty miles”

11. A literal or figurative path or course for movement relating to:

    “a run to China”

12. A literal or figurative path or course for movement relating to:

    “The data got lost, so I'll have to perform another run of the experiment.”

13. A literal or figurative path or course for movement relating to:

    “This morning's run of the SHIPS statistical model gave Hurricane Priscilla a 74% chance of gaining at least 30 knots of intensity in 24 hours, reconfirmed by the HMON and GFS dynamical models.”

14. A literal or figurative path or course for movement relating to:

    “This was my first successful run without losing any health.”

    “That NPC bugged out and killed my run.”

15. Unrestricted use. Only used in have the run of.

    “He can have the run of the house.”

16. An enclosure for an animal; a track or path along which something can travel.

    “He set up a rabbit run.”

17. (Australia, New-Zealand)A rural landholding for farming, usually for running sheep, and operated by a runholder.
18. State of being current; currency; popularity.

    “It is impossible for detached papers[...] to have a general run, or long continuance, if they are not diversified[...].”

19. Something continuous or sequential.

    “I’m having a run of bad luck.”

    “1782 Frances Burney Cecilia “ […] had had the preceding night an uncommon run of luck”.”

    “He went to Las Vegas and spent all his money over a three-day run.”

    “They who made their arrangements in the first run of misadventure [...] put a seal on their calamities.”

    “German wildcard Sabine Lisicki conquered her nerves to defeat France's Marion Bartoli and take her amazing Wimbledon run into the semi-finals.”

20. Something continuous or sequential.

    “If our team can keep up their strong defense, expect them to make a run in this tournament.”

21. Something continuous or sequential.

    “Yesterday we did a run of 12,000 units.”

    “The book’s initial press run will be 5,000 copies.”

22. Something continuous or sequential.

    “The run of the show lasted two weeks, and we sold out every night.”

    “It is the last week of our French cinema run.”

    “A canting, mawkish play [...] had an immense run.”

23. (slang)Something continuous or sequential.

    “And I'll tell ya, things aren't quite the same / When I'm rushing on my run.”

    “Frank Fixwell, a 25 year-old male, has been on a heroin "run" (daily use) for the past two years.”

    “1977, Richard P. Rettig, Manual J. Torres, Gerald R. Garrett, Manny: a criminal-addict's story, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) →ISBN I was hooked on dope, and hooked bad, during this whole period, but I was also hooked behind robbery. When you're on a heroin run, you stay loaded so long as you can score.”

    “This can develop quite quickly (over a matter of hours) during a cocaine run or when cocaine use becomes a daily habit.”

    “DA depletion leads to the crash that characteristically ends a cocaine run.”

24. Something continuous or sequential.
25. Something continuous or sequential.
26. A flow of liquid; a leak.

    “The constant run of water from the faucet annoys me.”

    “a run of must in wine-making”

    “the first run of sap in a maple orchard”

27. (Pennsylvania, Virginia, West)A small creek or part thereof. (Compare Southern US branch and New York and New England brook.)

    “The military campaign near that creek was known as "The battle of Bull Run".”

28. A quick pace, faster than a walk.

    “He broke into a run.”

29. A quick pace, faster than a walk.
30. A sudden series of demands on a bank or other financial institution, especially characterised by great withdrawals.

    “Financial insecurity led to a run on the banks, as customers feared for the security of their savings.”

31. Any sudden large demand for something.

    “There was a run on Christmas presents.”

32. Various horizontal dimensions or surfaces
33. Various horizontal dimensions or surfaces
34. Various horizontal dimensions or surfaces
35. A standard or unexceptional group or category.

    “He stood out from the usual run of applicants.”

36. In sports

    “After trailing by as much as 12 points in the second half, Florida went on a 8-0 run to get back in the game.”

37. (slang)In sports

    “I’m coming up next month to work for the summer and wanna know where I can get some run or any intel on indoor and outdoor courts.”

    “I used to see homies getting some run in regularly at Pomeroy but it died down this summer for some reason... dunno why.. them runs was fireeeeeee”

38. In sports
39. In sports
40. In sports

    “… one of the greatest runs of all time.”

    “Aaron Roberts added an insurance touchdown on a one-yard run.”

41. In sports
42. In sports
43. In sports

    “Well, when you compare the cone type with the cross roller bit, you get a longer run, there is less tendency of the bit to go flat while running in various formations. It cleans itself better.”

44. A line of knit stitches that have unravelled, particularly in a nylon stocking.

    “I have a run in my stocking.”

    “A camera pans the cocktail hour / Behind a blind of potted palms / And finds a lady in a Paris dress / With runs in her nylons”

45. The stern of the underwater body of a ship from where it begins to curve upward and inward.
46. The horizontal distance to which a drift may be carried, either by licence of the proprietor of a mine or by the nature of the formation; also, the direction which a vein of ore or other substance takes.
47. A pair or set of millstones.
48. One’s gait while running; the way one runs.

    “I think they only have a weird run because their leg hurts.”

adj

1. (not-comparable)In a liquid state; melted or molten.

   “Put some run butter on the vegetables.”

   “Samples of the regular run butter were sealed in 1 pound tins and sent to Washington, where the butter was scored and examined.”

2. (not-comparable)Cast in a mould.

   “[...] the Sides are generally made of Holland's Tiles, or Plates of run Iron, ornamented variously as Fancy dictates, [...]”

   “Vast quantities are cast in sand moulds, with that kind of run steel which is so largely used in the production of common table-knives and forks.”

   “For making tea I have a kettle, Besides a pan made of run metal; An old arm-chair, in which I sit well — The back is round.”

3. (not-comparable)Exhausted; depleted (especially with "down" or "out").
4. (not-comparable)Travelled, migrated; having made a migration or a spawning run.

   “The temperature of the water is consequently much higher than in either England or Scotland, and many newly run salmon will be found in early spring in the upper waters of Irish rivers where obstructions exist.”

   “It may be very much a metallic appearance as opposed to the silver freshness of a recently run salmon.”

   “Thus, on almost any day of the year, a fresh-run salmon may be caught legally somewhere in the British Isles.”

5. (not-comparable)Smuggled.

   “run brandy”