Run

subs. and verb. phrs. (colloquial).—Generic for freedom or continuance. Thus (subs. phrs.), RUN (OF DICE, CARDS, or LUCK) = a spell or period of good or bad fortune; RUN (of a play, book, fashion, &c.) = the course of representation, sale, popularity; THE RUN OF THINGS = the state of affairs; THE RUN OF A PLACE = freedom of range; THE RUN OF ONE’S TEETH (or KNIFE AND FORK) = victuals for nothing; A RUN ON A BANK = a steady call, through panic, on its resources; CATTLE-RUN = a farm where cattle roam at will; A RUN TO TOWN (or INTO THE COUNTRY) = a trip; TO HAVE (or LOSE) THE RUN = to lose sight of; TO GET (or HAVE) THE RUN ON = (1) to turn a joke on, and (2) to have the upper hand; TO HAVE A RUN = (1) to take a walk, a CONSTITUTIONAL (q.v.); (2) to get an opportunity: see P.P.; and (3) to make a fight for anything; TO RUN = to manage; TO RUN A BLUFF = to carry things with a high hand; TO RUN A BUCK (see BUCK); TO RUN FOR OFFICE (PARLIAMENT, CONGRESS, &c.) = to start as a candidate; TO RUN A RIG = to play a trick; TO RUN A CHANCE (or RISK) = to take the odds; TO RUN A TILT AT = to attack; TO RUN THE CUTTER = to smuggle; TO RUN AN EYE OVER = (1) to glance at; TO RUN THE GAUNTLET (see GAUNTLET); TO RUN ACROSS = to meet casually; TO RUN AFTER = to court; TO RUN AGAINST = (1) to come in collision with, (2) to calumniate, (3) to attack, and (4) to meet casually; TO RUN AMUCK (see AMUCK); TO RUN AWAY WITH = (1) to elope, (2) to steal; TO RUN AWAY WITH A NOTION = to be over credulous; TO RUN BIG = to be out of training; TO RUN COUNTER = to oppose; TO RUN DOWN = to pursue, depreciate, attack; TO RUN DRY = to give out; TO RUN FOUL OF = to attack or antagonise; TO RUN HARD = (1) to threaten, endanger, make difficult, and (2) to equal or almost achieve; TO RUN HIGH = (1) to be violent, (2) to excel in a marked degree; TO RUN IN = (1) to arrest, and (2) to introduce; TO RUN IN ONE’S HEAD = (1) to bear in mind, (2) to remember; TO RUN INTO THE GROUND = to carry to excess; TO RUN IT (American cadets’) = to go beyond bounds; TO RUN LIKE MAD = to go at the top of one’s speed: Fr. ventre à terre; TO RUN LOW = (1) to diminish, (2) to be of little account; TO RUN MAD AFTER = to have a strong desire for; TO RUN OFF = (1) to repeat, (2) to count; TO RUN OFF WITH = (1) to elope, (2) to carry beyond bounds; TO RUN OFF THE STRAIGHT (see STRAIGHT); TO RUN ON = to keep going: spec. to chatter; TO RUN ON ALL FOURS (see FOURS); TO RUN ON PATTENS (see PATTENS); TO RUN ON THE HIRL = to gad, to LOAF (q.v.); TO RUN ONE’S FACE (or SHAPE) = to obtain credit; TO RUN ONE’S HEAD INTO A NOOSE = to fall into a snare; TO RUN ONE’S TAIL = to live by prostitution; TO RUN ONE’S WEEK (American university) = to trust to chance for success; TO RUN ONE WAY AND LOOK ANOTHER = to play a double game; TO RUN OUT = (1) to end, (2) to have had one’s day, (3) to be lavish; TO RUN OUT ON = to enlarge on; TO RUN OVER = (1) to count, (2) to call to mind, (3) to examine, (4) to describe, and (5) to sum up; TO RUN RIOT = (1) to be violent, (2) to exaggerate, (3) to have plenty, (4) to be active, (5) to disobey; TO RUN RUSTY (see RUSTY); TO RUN SLY (see SLY); TO RUN SMOOTH = to be prosperous; TO RUN THIN = to back out of a bargain; TO RUN TO = (1) to risk, (2) to suffice, (3) to afford; TO RUN TOGETHER = to grow like; TO RUN TO SEED = (1) to age, (2) to deteriorate; TO RUN THROUGH = (1) to be uniform, (2) to pervade, (3) to be present, (4) to kill, and (5) to be prodigal; TO RUN UP = (1) to increase, (2) to build, and (3) see RUNNER-UP; TO RUN UP AN ACCOUNT = (1) to get credit, (2) get into debt, and (3) to charge; TO RUN UP BILLS = to obtain goods with no intention of paying; TO RUN UPON = (1) to quiz, (2) to require; TO RUN TO WASTE = (1) to empty, (2) to fritter away; TO RUN WILD = (1) to ROMP (q.v.), and (2) to riot; BY (or WITH) A RUN = suddenly; A RUN FOR ONE’S MONEY = a good time in exchange for a certain expenditure of energy and cash; RUN OFF ONE’S LEGS = (1) exhausted, (2) bankrupt; A NEAR RUN = (1) a close finish, (2) a bare escape, (3) cheek by jowl; RUN AFTER = in repute; RUN DOWN = seedy, poor. Also proverbs and sayings, ‘To RUN through thick and thin’; ‘His shoes are made of RUNNING leather’; ‘To RUN a wild-goose chase’; ‘The Coaches won’t RUN over him’ (i.e., ‘He’s in gaol’); ‘He that RUNS may read’ (said of things unmistakably plain); ‘To RUN where the devil drives’; ‘RUN tap, RUN tapster’ (RAY: ‘of a tapster that drinks so much himself and is so free to others that he is fain to run away’); ‘To hold with the hare and RUN with the hounds’ (HEYWOOD, 1546). [Many of these colloquialisms are found passim in English literature, and, though fitly mentioned in this place, do not require extended illustration. Therefore, only early or striking quotations are given.]

  d. 1400.  CHAUCER, The Romaunt of the Rose [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 400. There are … RUN DOWN his fame, valour (in the new sense of worth) …].

  c. 1500.  DUNBAR [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 363. Among the verbs are RUN DOWN a man, take thy choice …].

  1577.  W. HARRISON, The Description of England [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 595. The verb RUN is applied in a new sense; a range of hills RUNS in a certain direction.]

  1605.  JONSON, Volpone, or the Fox, iii. 6.

  1613.  PURCHAS, Pilgrimage, 196. And because these prayers are very many, therefore they RUN them OUER.

  c. 1617.  HOWELL, Familiar Letters, I. v. 7. Jack Stanford would have RUN AT him, but was kept off by Mr. Nicholas.

  1678.  BUTLER, Hudibras, III. 2, 11. That first RUN all religion DOWN.

  1694.  PENN, The Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers, v. Some … who, through prejudice or mistake, RAN AGAINST him.

  1705.  FARQUHAR, The Twin Rivals, Pref. One reason that the galleries were so thin during the RUN of this play.

  1709.  STEELE, Tatler, 27. His desires RAN AWAY with him.

  1710–3.  SWIFT, The Journal to Stella [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, ii. 150. A book has a RUN like the old course; there is also a RUN of ill weather.]

  1711.  Spectator, 262. I RUN OVER in my mind all the eminent persons in the nation. Ibid. (1712), 390. This creature, if not in any of their little cabals, is RUN DOWN for the most censorious dangerous body in the world. Ibid. (1714), 592. Several of them lay it down as a maxim, that whatever dramatic performance has a LONG RUN, must of necessity be good for nothing; as though the first precept in poetry were not to please.

  1726.  POPE, The Dunciad, i. 113.

  1736.  FIELDING, Pasquin, i. I read your comedy over last night … if it RUNS as long as it deserves, you will engross the whole season to yourself.

  1748.  SMOLLETT, Roderick Random, xlvii. I would not have you RUN your head precipitately INTO A NOOSE.

  1812.  AUSTEN, Pride and Prejudice, liii. I will not spend my hours in RUNNING AFTER my neighbours.

  1837.  DICKENS, Pickwick Papers, x. You have RUN OFF WITH this lady for the sake of her money. Ibid. (1843), Martin Chuzzlewit, xxx. I think of giving her a RUN in London for a change. Ibid. (1846), The Cricket on the Hearth, i. ‘Busy … Caleb?’ ‘Pretty well, John…. There ’s rather a RUN ON Noah’s Arks at present.’

  1847.  W. T. PORTER, ed., A Quarter Race in Kentucky, etc., 23. I would not advise any man to try to RUN OVER me.

  1848.  RUXTON, Life in the Far West, 103. From the RUN of the hills, there must be plenty of water.

  c. 1854.  MACAULAY, Montgomery’s Poems. The publications which have had a RUN during the last few years.

  1859.  J. W. PALMER, The New and the Old, 62. If I had had time to follow his fortunes, it was not possible to ‘keep the RUN’ of him.

  c. 1860.  Music Hall Song, ‘Drink under the Licensing Act.’ It maybe your fate, If not walking quite straight, By blue Guardians to be RUN IN.

  1861.  H. KINGSLEY, Ravenshoe, xxxvii. If any … burglar had [cracked] that particular crib … and got clear off with the swag he … might have been RUN … for Congress in a year or two.

  1861.  Times, 23 July. Is there such a thing as a RUN in calamity? Misfortunes, they say, never come single.

  1864.  G. A. LAWRENCE, Guy Livingstone, xii. Livingstone headed the list, though Fallowfield RAN him HARD.

  1865.  H. KINGSLEY, The Hillyars and the Burtons, lix. He might have his RUN swept by fire … and be forced to hurry his sheep down to the boiling house.

  1866.  G. ELIOT, Felix Holt, xx. There was a great RUN on Gottleb’s bank in ’16. Ibid., xxv. For a man who had long ago RUN THROUGH his own money, servitude in a great family was the best kind of retirement after that of a pensioner.

  1871.  H. B. STOWE, Oldtown Fireside Stories, 29, ‘The Sullivan Looking-Glass.’ She … hed the in and out o’ the Sullivan house, and kind o’ kept the RUN o’ how things went and came in it.

  1877.  North American Review, July, 5. They assumed the functions of all offices, including the courts of justice, and in many places they even RUN the churches.

  1879.  W. D. HOWELLS, The Lady of the Aroostook, vii. “Every novelist RUNS a blonde heroine; I wonder why.”

  1879.  J. W. HORSLEY, ‘Autobiography of a Thief,’ in Macmillan’s Magazine, XL., 506. ‘I got RUN IN, and was tried at Marylebone.’

  1880.  G. R. SIMS, Ballads of Babylon (Forgotten—A Last Interview). I made a success, and was lucky, the play RAN half a year.

  1883.  Referee, 29 April, 7, 2. American evangelists and speculators who RUN salvation on much the same lines as Barnum runs his menagerie.

  1883.  Daily Telegraph, 28 Aug., 5, 1. It does not always follow that the silly backers get a RUN FOR THEIR MONEY. The horse … may be scratched a few hours before the race. Ibid. (1883), 4 Oct., 3, 2. What I should like is a nice pair of spectacles, and, as far as my money would RUN TO IT, everything else accordin’, sir. Ibid. (1885), 1 July. Marchant being foolishly RUN OUT. Ibid. (1886), 8 Feb. Coming down to the ground WITH A RUN.

  1885.  Money Market Review, 29 Aug. We were unable to RUN the mill.

  1885.  Echo, 8 Sept. The RUN upon the Bank of Ireland and the Provincial Bank was very severe.

  1887.  F. FRANCIS, Jun., Saddle and Moccasin, vii. 130–1. I RUN A BLUFF on ’em. They said they wasn’t driving ’em anyhow, but they got started in the trail ahead of ’em, and it wasn’t their business to turn ’em.

  1888.  BRYCE, The American Commonwealth, I. 84. It is often said of the President that he is ruled—or, as the Americans express it, ‘RUN’—by his Secretary.

  1888.  Sporting Life, 10 Dec. His opponent eventually RAN OUT a winner by 319 points.

  1889.  H. B. MARRIOTT-WATSON, Australian Wilds, 135. Drummond, a young squatter in Otago, had succeeded to the management of the RUN on the death of his father.

  1889.  Globe, 11 Feb. Of late they have had a long RUN OF LUCK.

  1890.  Pall Mall Gazette, 3 March, 5, 2. Mr. Depew asserts that he is RUNNING A RAILROAD and not a Presidential boom.

  1892.  HUME NISBET, The Bushranger’s Sweetheart, 22. Sailors, as a rule, are not friends of bailiffs or Custom House officers, and thus appreciate RUNNING THE CUTTER.

  1893.  MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, 14, ‘On ’Igh Life.’ Bald buffers seem fair IN THE RUN! Ibid., 8, ‘At a Fancy Fair.’ Cremorne reglar OUT OF THE RUN.

  1893.  P. H. EMERSON, Signor Lippo, xiv. Alright, give me due beonck quatro soldi per RUN and I’ll bring you the duckets.

  1895.  KATHLEEN M. CAFFYN, A Comedy in Spasms, iv. ‘It will give a fellow quite an added cachet,’ he thought, with a meagre smile, ‘TO RUN so fine a woman as that, and pay off some old scores into the bargain—make more than one lady look pretty blue.’

  1899.  R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, i. A coral island … RUN on principles of almost primitive Christianity.

  1900.  PERCY WHITE, The West End, 38. I always had an idea that the guv’nor had some money, but I didn’t imagine it would ‘RUN’ TO this. Ibid., 150. ‘Cricket tour!’ said he, indignantly. ‘I must get ‘fit’ first. I feel quite ‘RUN DOWN.’’