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Run off   /rən ɔf/   Listen
verb
Run  v. t.  (past ran; past part. run; pres. part. running)  
1.
To cause to run (in the various senses of Run, v. i.); as, to run a horse; to run a stage; to run a machine; to run a rope through a block.
2.
To pursue in thought; to carry in contemplation. "To run the world back to its first original." "I would gladly understand the formation of a soul, and run it up to its "punctum saliens.""
3.
To cause to enter; to thrust; as, to run a sword into or through the body; to run a nail into the foot. "You run your head into the lion's mouth." "Having run his fingers through his hair."
4.
To drive or force; to cause, or permit, to be driven. "They ran the ship aground." "A talkative person runs himself upon great inconveniences by blabbing out his own or other's secrets." "Others, accustomed to retired speculations, run natural philosophy into metaphysical notions."
5.
To fuse; to shape; to mold; to cast; as, to run bullets, and the like. "The purest gold must be run and washed."
6.
To cause to be drawn; to mark out; to indicate; to determine; as, to run a line.
7.
To cause to pass, or evade, offical restrictions; to smuggle; said of contraband or dutiable goods. "Heavy impositions... are a strong temptation of running goods."
8.
To go through or accomplish by running; as, to run a race; to run a certain career.
9.
To cause to stand as a candidate for office; to support for office; as, to run some one for Congress. (Colloq. U.S.)
10.
To encounter or incur, as a danger or risk; as, to run the risk of losing one's life. See To run the chances, below. "He runneth two dangers." "If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.".
11.
To put at hazard; to venture; to risk. "He would himself be in the Highlands to receive them, and run his fortune with them."
12.
To discharge; to emit; to give forth copiously; to be bathed with; as, the pipe or faucet runs hot water. "At the base of Pompey's statua, Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell."
13.
To be charged with, or to contain much of, while flowing; as, the rivers ran blood.
14.
To conduct; to manage; to carry on; as, to run a factory or a hotel. (Colloq. U.S.)
15.
To tease with sarcasms and ridicule. (Colloq.)
16.
To sew, as 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.
17.
To migrate or move in schools; said of fish; esp., to ascend a river in order to spawn.
18.
(Golf) To strike (the ball) in such a way as to cause it to run along the ground, as when approaching a hole.
To run a blockade, to get to, or away from, a blockaded port in safety.
To run down.
(a)
(Hunting) To chase till the object pursued is captured or exhausted; as, to run down a stag.
(b)
(Naut.) To run against and sink, as a vessel.
(c)
To crush; to overthrow; to overbear. "Religion is run down by the license of these times."
(d)
To disparage; to traduce.
To run hard.
(a)
To press in competition; as, to run one hard in a race.
(b)
To urge or press importunately.
(c)
To banter severely.
To run into the ground, to carry to an absurd extreme; to overdo. (Slang, U.S.)
To run off, to cause to flow away, as a charge of molten metal from a furnace.
To run on (Print.), to carry on or continue, as the type for a new sentence, without making a break or commencing a new paragraph.
To run out.
(a)
To thrust or push out; to extend.
(b)
To waste; to exhaust; as, to run out an estate.
(c)
(Baseball) To put out while running between two bases. Also called to run out.
To run the chances or To run one's chances, to encounter all the risks of a certain course.
To run through, to transfix; to pierce, as with a sword. "(He) was run through the body by the man who had asked his advice."
To run up.
(a)
To thrust up, as anything long and slender.
(b)
To increase; to enlarge by additions, as an account.
(c)
To erect hastily, as a building.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Run off" Quotes from Famous Books



... Soon two-thirds of the spectators were trooping to join the throng in the upper field, pressing in on the antagonists, jostling in their eagerness to catch a word of the dispute. The competitors in Class D were left to plough lonely furrows and finish them unapplauded. Young Mr Crago had run off meantime to secure the ...
— Hocken and Hunken • A. T. Quiller-Couch

... and the belief of the fact of the resurrection of Christ, I have shown elsewhere. The universal belief of the 'tyrannicidium' of Julius Caesar is doubtless a fairer instance, but the whole mode of argument is unsound and unsatisfying. Why run off from the fact in question, or the class at least to which it belongs? The victory can be but accidental—a victory obtained by the unguarded logic, or want of logical foresight of the antagonist, who needs only narrow his positions ...
— Coleridge's Literary Remains, Volume 4. • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... youngest sister. It had been an occasion to rouse an older brother and the head of his house to some dramatic pronouncement. He should have taken a stand, they said, though just what stand one should take, when one's sister has run off with another man and left a wholly admirable husband and a winsome baby daughter behind, may not, perhaps, have been wholly clear to the minds of the remaining impeccable sisters. They demanded he should confiscate her share of their father's estate as punishment; ...
— Otherwise Phyllis • Meredith Nicholson

... time; the Zeppelins came somewhere to this island every night for a week—one of them, on the night of the big raid, was visible from our square for fifteen or twenty minutes—in general it is a dull and depressing time. I have thought that since you were determined to run off with a young fellow, you chose a pretty good time to go away. I'm afraid there'll be no more of what we call "fun" in this town as long as ...
— The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume II • Burton J. Hendrick

... filth of city courts and back lanes. If you speak to him he answers you sturdily—if you can catch the meaning of his words, doubly difficult from accent and imperfect knowledge of construction. But he means well, and if you send him on an errand will run off to find 'measter' as fast as his short stature will allow. He will potter about the farmyard the whole morning, perhaps turning up at home for a lunch of a slice of bread well larded. His little sister, not so old as himself, is there, already beginning ...
— Hodge and His Masters • Richard Jefferies


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